St. Louis visits Chicago, looks to build on Flaherty's strong outing
St. Louis Cardinals (86-67, first in the NL Central) vs. Chicago Cubs (82-71, third in the NL Central)
Chicago; Friday, 2 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Michael Wacha (6-7, 4.76 ERA) Cubs: Alec Mills (1-0, 3.42 ERA)
LINE: Cubs -108; over/under is 7 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: St. Louis heads into the matchup fresh off a dominant performance by Jack Flaherty. Flaherty pitched eight innings, surrendering one run on three hits with eight strikeouts against Chicago.
The Cubs are 35-32 against NL Central teams. The Chicago pitching staff as a whole has an ERA of 4.04. Kyle Hendricks leads the team with a 3.37 ERA.
The Cardinals have gone 42-28 against division opponents. The St. Louis pitching staff as a whole has an ERA of 3.79. Jack Flaherty leads the team with a 2.96 earned run average. The Cardinals won the last meeting 5-4. Andrew Miller earned his fifth victory and Matt Carpenter went 1-for-2 with a home run and an RBI for St. Louis. Craig Kimbrel registered his third loss for Chicago.
TOP PERFORMERS: Kyle Schwarber leads the Cubs with 37 home runs and is batting .239. Kris Bryant is 13-for-37 with five home runs and 13 RBIs over the last 10 games for Chicago.
Paul Goldschmidt leads the Cardinals with 31 home runs and has 89 RBIs. Tommy Edman is 12-for-32 with a double, a triple, three home runs and five RBIs over the last 10 games for St. Louis.
LAST 10 GAMES: Cubs: 5-5, .268 batting average, 3.65 ERA, outscored opponents by 32 runs
Cardinals: 5-5, .222 batting average, 3.03 ERA, outscored opponents by 14 runs
Cubs Injuries: Allen Webster: (hand), Brandon Morrow: (elbow), Brandon Kintzler: (oblique), Kendall Graveman: (elbow), Xavier Cedeno: (wrist), Javier Baez: (thumb).
Cardinals Injuries: Jordan Hicks: (elbow), Tony Cingrani: (shoulder), Brett Cecil: (wrist/forearm), Lane Thomas: (wrist), Kolten Wong: (hamstring).
