Giants at Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals are heating up at the right time as they continue their postseason push Sunday, when they attempt to complete a three-game sweep of the San Francisco Giants. St. Louis has followed a four-game slide by winning five of six contests, including the first two of six straight at Busch Stadium - its final homestand of the season.
Tyler O'Neill belted a two-out homer in the 10th inning on Saturday to provide a 5-4 victory for the Cardinals, who maintained their 1 1/2-game lead over Colorado for the second wild card in the National League. St. Louis sits two games behind Milwaukee for the first spot and 4 1/2 in back of the Chicago Cubs for first in the NL Central. Yadier Molina also went deep on Saturday as he passed Brad Ausmus for 10th place on the all-time list by making his 1,767th career start at catcher. Rookie Aramis Garcia went 4-for-4 and drove in two runs while Joe Panik collected three hits and an RBI for San Francisco, which is 2-3 on its six-game road trip and 4-15 overall this month.
TV: 2:15 p.m. ET, MLB Network, NBCS Bay Area (San Francisco), FS Midwest (St. Louis)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Giants LH Andrew Suarez (7-11, 4.24 ERA) vs. Cardinals RH Miles Mikolas (16-4, 3.01)
Suarez avoided losing a third straight start Monday as he allowed two runs and four hits over a career-high 7 2/3 innings in a victory at San Diego. The triumph was the first on the road for the 26-year-old Floridian rookie since June 29, ending his six-start drought. Suarez, who will be facing St. Louis for the first time, has worked at least six frames in five consecutive outings.
Mikolas attempts to pull even with Washington's Max Scherzer for the NL lead in victories as he vies for his fourth in a row and ninth in 10 decisions. The 30-year-old, who also hails from the Sunshine State, gave up two runs and four hits over five innings in a triumph at Atlanta on Monday. Mikolas has permitted one run and six hits over 5 1/3 frames in four career relief appearances against San Francisco, which he has not faced since 2013 while with San Diego.
WALK-OFFS
1. Cardinals 2B Kolten Wong sat out Saturday's contest due to hamstring cramps that forced him to leave the previous night's game.
2. San Francisco registered 11 hits on Saturday but just one for extra bases.
3. Molina's blast on Saturday was his 145th in the major leagues, moving him one ahead of brother Bengie for family bragging rights, and put him within one of the second 20-homer season of his career.