ST. LOUIS — Cardinals outfielder Ryan Ludwick goes back a few years with the pitcher he’ll be facing tonight, but that doesn’t really help him prepare to face Cincinnati Reds righthander Justin Lehr anymore than his mostly flying-blind teammates.

“He’s a completely different pitcher,” Ludwick said. “He moves the ball around. Sinks it, cutter, split.”

The Cardinals rely heavily on video when preparing their scouting reports on opposing pitchers, and the catalog of “film” on Lehr isn’t as deep as his age would imply. Lehr just turned 32 and will likely pitch his 100th major-league inning tonight. (He has 97 innings in 68 games entering tonight’s start.) The numbers, from Bill James Online, say that Lehr has thrown 214 pitches this season in the majors and 97 of them have been fastballs (45 percent) and 42 of them have been split-finger fastballs (20 percent), which he throws primarily to lefthanded batters.

From their video archives, what the Cardinals do have to watch is nine of his best innings as a major-leaguer. In his previous start — only his second start in the majors — Lehr pitched a nine-inning shutout against the Cubs. He struck out four, walked one and held the Cubs to four hits in his nine innings.

Fourteen of the 27 outs Lehr collected in that game at Great America Ball Park were flyouts. He threw 117 pitches. It was his first shutout at any level of pro ball.

“He’s an unlikely guy to do that,” manager Dusty Baker told reporters afterward.

Lehr had a previous life as a reliever with Milwaukee, so four Cardinals have at least one at-bat against him. Two of them — Albert Pujols (0-for-2) and Skip Schumaker (0-for-1) — are in the lineup tonight, though not one of the four have a hit against Lehr.

“He has tons of experience,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He’ll definitely mess with us tonight.”

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