Jeff Gordon previews tonight's St. Louis Cardinals-New York Mets game at Citi Field (6:10 p.m., FSM):
THE STAKES: Brewers outfielder Jim Edmonds helped his old team, crushing the game-winning home run as Milwaukee edged the Reds 3-2 Monday night. That dropped Cincinnati a game behind the Cardinals in the National League Central.
That Reds loss helped minimize the damage caused by the recent Cards downturn. Now the Cards will try to get rolling again in New York against the scuffling Mets, losers of nine of 11 games on their most recent road trip.
The Mets, now 7 ½ games behind the NL East, are a frustrated bunch. Can the Cards take advantage of that?
PITCHING FOR THE CARDINALS: Adam Wainwright (14-5, 1.94 ERA): He is 4-0 with a 0.25 ERA over his last five starts. He hasn't allowed an earned run in 25 innings. He may still be miles behind Tim Lincecum in the eyes of Cy Young Award voters this summer, but he is having a fine year.
Wainwright threw a four-hitter at the Mets earlier this season. Jason Bay (6 for 18, double, two RBIs), Jeff Francouer (3 for 11, three walks) and Henry Blanco (4 for 7, two doubles, one RBI) are the Mets with the most exposure to him over the years.
PITCHING FOR THE METS: Jonathon Niese (6-4, 3.54 ERA): The lefty is winless in his last three starts despite posting a 3.20 ERA. Like the other Mets starting pitchers, he has fallen victim to poor run support during New York's slide.
He has only faced the Cards once -- last Aug. 5, when he suffered a season-ending torn hamstring muscle just five outs into the game.
LINEUP INTRIGUE: Jon Jay remains red hot. Colby Rasmus is in an offensive funk. Ryan Ludwick is still recovering from his calf injury. The Mets feature lots of lefthanded pitching. So Tony La Russa will weigh a variety of factors while setting his center-field and right-field assignments this week.
Switch-hitting second baseman Aaron Miles is hitting .421 against lefties this season, so he figures to have value. Then again, Skip Schumaker reached base five times in Sunday's game to push his season batting average to .262. He is batting .281 since April.
Shortstop Brendan Ryan, 4 for 9 in the last two games in Chicago, should get an opportunity to build on that mini-roll this week. His batting average remains below the Mendoza line, but he has given the team a much-needed defensive lift on the left side of the infield.
BULLPEN INTRIGUE: Monday's day off was welcomed by the bullpen after Ryan Franklin's marathon 42-pitch performance Sunday night in Chicago. The closer has been clamoring for more work, but that was a bit much.
DOWN ON THE FARM: The big news Monday was Kyle Lohse's encouraging rehab start at Memphis. He threw 43 pitches, 30 for strikes, and worked effortlessly.
"I didn't know what to expect coming out. You want to come in and do a good job. With that long of a layoff and dealing with surgery, there's an unknown," Lohse told Joe Strauss after the Redbirds' 5-2 victory. "I felt pretty good in (last week's) simulated game. There have been a lot of positives. Today was one of them.
"I'm itching to get back and help out. But if I'm not at full strength it does me no good to say I'm ready to come up," he said. "I've really got to see how the next one now goes. If I make as good a stride in the next one up until this point, we'll see. If it goes as good or better next time, I feel I can go help the team. But if I have any doubts it would probably be better to come have another one. I'm trying to get back as quick as possible. But I'm trying to be smart about it."
Outfielder Nick Stavinoha, on the mend from his minor shoulder separation, went 1 for 3 in that game with an RBI double off rehabbing Texas pitcher Rich Harden.
