Houston Astros vs. St. Louis Cardinals

The Houston Astros held their own in a trip to the west coast to face the MLB best Los Angeles Dodgers as they earned a split of the four-game series.

If the Astros (46-46) want to prove just how far they have come in their long journey back to .500, their three-game series with the division leader St. Louis Cardinals (51-43) will truly put that to the test.

The only time these NL Central rivals met was way back in early April with the Cardinals sweeping the  Houston Astros out of St. Louis. Houston is in fourth place in the grueling six-team division, but are no means out of the race. The Chicago Cubs reside in second place, two games behind first, Milwaukee has fallen to third place, three games out and then Houston resides four games out of first place.

Houston obviously controls their own destiny and can pull within a game of the Cardinals with a series sweep.

The St. Louis Cardinals, for their part, kept up their winning ways as they banned two of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first weekend of the second half.

St. Louis’ victories have sometimes been head scratchers. Outside of MVP shoe in Albert Pujols, the Cardinals have had little offensive attack. Pujols is batting .351 with eight home runs in the past 22 games and his teammates have contributed a .239 average with 17 homers.

Their hurlers have baled them out of many situations this season and Kyle Loshe (4-5, 4.26) will try to keep it up as he starts the series opener on Monday. He could not keep up in his last start when he allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings of a 7-3 loss to the Cubs.

Loshe pitched one of his best games of the season when he faced Houston earlier this season, going the distance and shutting out the Astros 3-0 although Loshe is 1-2 with a 4.15 ERA in four games at Minute Maid Park.

Houston counters with veteran Brian Moehler (6-5, 5.08), who is part of a hot starting rotation. Moehler defeated the Washington Nationals in his last outing, tossing 6 1/3 shutout innings in a 5-0 win on July 12. Moehler is 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA since June 14.

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