Cardinals looking to blank the Rays, again

Two teams going in opposite directions could be the theme of tonight’s match-up between St. Louis (34-31) at Tampa Bay (24-42).

Last night marked the third straight game Cardinals pitchers have held a team scoreless. On Saturday and Sunday St. Louis had 5-0 wins in Toronto. Then last night Adam Wainwright held the Rays scoreless in its third straight game to become the NL’s first nine-game winner.

Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny said, “Our starting pitching has been extremely good these last few, to say the least.”

As for the Rays, the most recent scoreless game is its 10th this year.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said, “It’s kind of weird to watch because it just doesn’t stay that negative for that long normally. It just doesn’t but it has. This is truly one of those anomaly moments where we’ve got to stick together as a group.”

As for tonight’s game between the Cardinals’ Michael Wacha (4-4, 2.61) against The Rays’ Erik Bedard (3-4, 3.61 ERA), all eyes will be on the over/under. St. Louis is a disappointing 10-21-3 away from home while Tampa Bay is 18-11-2 at home.

Considering Wacha in six road starts is 0-4 with a 2.86 ERA, the over (7, +105) could be in play.