Series 20 (of 52) Preview: Cardinals Visit Houston

The Houston Astros host the St. Louis Cardinals for three games starting tonight.

This is the only time this season that Houston will play the Cards. The last time they faced each other was last year, June 27-29, when Houston won two of three. In the last game, a 14-0 Houston victory, Kyle Tucker (11) and Alex Bregman (12) each went deep, collecting nine RBIs between them. Yainer Diaz and Corey Julks also had three hits in the win. JP France (3-3, 3.13) earned the victory with seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks.

I just managed to locate it, and it was one of those games where everything worked – the shape of the knife was really good, I could move the heater in and out as I needed, the speed of the curve was a little higher, so it was still good. I was able to track this thing down, and the shift has been solid the last two outings. – France

In the all-time series, Houston is 333-381 against the Cardinals, with a .466 winning percentage, which is its worst against an NL Central opponent.

Game times and starting pitchers

Monday, 7:10 p.m. ET: Kyle Gibson (4-2, 3.60) vs. Justin Verlander (3-2, 3.26)
Tuesday, 7:10 p.m. ET: Andre Pallante (1-1, 3.94) vs. Spencer Arrighetti (3-5, 5.98)
Wednesday, 1:10 p.m. ET: Miles Mikolas (3-6, 5.54) vs. Ronel Blanco (5-1, 2.44)

The Astros just finished their three-game series against the Minnesota Twins with a win and two losses. In Houston’s lone win on Saturday, the Astros rolled to a 5-2 win to back up a spectacular start from Framber Valdez (4-3, 3.95). He reached the seventh inning before allowing a hit, earning the win by giving up two walks and two hits in seven frames, with four strikeouts. Josh Hader (8) got the save with a perfect ninth. Kyle Tucker (19), Jose Abreu (1) and Yordan Alvarez (10, 11) contributed to the victory.

I always tell myself that once you go six innings without a hit, you have to try to finish it, and whatever happens, happens. If you give up the hit, you give up the hit, but you have to go in with the mindset of trying to complete the hit. — Valdez, through an interpreter

The Cardinals come to town on the heels of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies. In the final game of the set, a 6-1 loss Sunday, St. Louis collected a total of five hits while Sonny Gray (7-3, 3.00) struck out 10 in five innings, but lost awarding four points out of five. hits and three walks.

I punched everyone, then after I sat down I thought about all the little parts of my career, and never in a million years would I have thought I would throw in a great championship match. — Ryan Loutos on his major league debut