Big weekend for America and Baseball, particularly for the Cardinals and Cubs. The midwestern rivals are 1-2 atop the NL Central, and meet in a 3 game series at Busch Stadium this weekend. Here is a quick preview of the games, with the Cards pitcher first:
- Friday - Looper (9-5) vs Zambrano (8-3)
- Saturday (on Fox) - Lohse (10-2) vs Lilly (9-5)
- Sunday - Wellemeyer (7-3) vs Marshall (0-2)
Zambrano is making his first start since missing a few starts due to a slight injury. The Cardinals 
are set up pretty well with their best 3 pitchers right now, throwing in the series. Would be nice if we had Wainwright, Carpenter, Clement, or a few of the other pitchers that are stashed away on our DL. But I like our chances. The walk-off HR by Troy Glaus last night was very exciting, good for momentum heading into a big weekend series at home. Should be a lot of fans there also given the holiday weekend.
These games are important, for a few reasons:
- Cards are 2.5 games back of the Cubs; the winner of the series gains serious momentum heading into the 2nd half of the season
- The Cards have not yet played at Wrigley this season - there will be 6 games at Wrigley in August and September, while only 3 more after this series at Busch [interesting note: the Cards and Cubs play 15 times this season total - 9 at Busch, 6 in Chicago - that's the definition of the "unbalanced schedule" that you hear about]
- These games are always important - two midwestern teams with fans in very close proximity of each other. Very similar to the Red Sox and Yankees at least geographically, in that everyone in the entire region typically favors one team or the other.
If the Cards can get a sweep or even 2 out of 3, I think the Cardinals will show they are here to stay. If the Cubs dominate, the tone could be set for the second half. Hard to project so much in one series, but I'm a big believer in letting the first place team know that you are going to take their spot if they slip just a little bit. Have a great weekend.
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