Cardinals starting pitcher Blake Hawksworth is 4-5 with a 4.85 ERA in 27 appearances (six starts) this season and comes in on a two-game winning streak.\u00a0 In those two starts against Houston and Philadelphia, he has allowed six runs and 17 hits over 11.1 innings.\u00a0 He has managed to throw at least five or more innings in each of his last five starts.\u00a0 Hawksworth has been great in limiting damage with runners in scoring position, especially with the bases loaded, as opponents are hitless in seven at-bats with the bags full against him.\u00a0 In three career outings versus the Cubs, he\u2019s yet to record a decision and compiled a 2.45 ERA.\u00a0 He made a relief appearance against Chicago earlier this season, allowing a run on two hits in just an inning of work.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Chicago trails the St. Louis Cardinals by 10 games in the NL Central race and shouldn\u2019t gain much confidence in knowing they haven\u2019t won a series over their rivals since April 16-18, 2009, at Wrigley Field.\u00a0 The Cubs will also look to end a skid that has seen them drop 10-consecutive series against divisional opponents.\u00a0 Entering today\u2019s contest, Chicago has a .386 winning percentage (17-27) against divisional foes, which is a major drop off from seven-consecutive seasons with a .500 or better record against the NL Central. The lineup has hit 28 home runs this month, which is tied for first in the National League with Milwaukee over that span.\u00a0 Third baseman Aramis Ramirez has led the charge, hitting a Major League-leading nine big flies this month.\u00a0 Collecting a win after shutting out their opponent may be a tough task, as the team has dropped all five such games this season (-530) and 6-15 over the last three years (-1,670).<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Cubs starting pitcher Tom Gorzelanny is an even 5-5 with a 3.12 ERA in 19 appearances (13 starts) this season, coming into this contest on a three-game win streak.\u00a0 He enters this game 3-0 with a 2.38 ERA since returning to the starting rotation on June 30 and outperformed Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay last time out.\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t hit him,\u201d said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel.\u00a0 \u201cGive their pitcher a lot of credit.\u00a0 He did a good job.\u201d\u00a0 Gorzelanny hasn\u2019t faced the Cardinals since June 2008, losing his last three decisions against them, as he\u2019s 1-3 with a 3.82 ERA in six career starts.\u00a0 The left-hander is 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA in 12 daytime appearances (seven starts), giving up just three home runs in 43.1 innings.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Bettors can expect a better performance out of the visiting Cardinals this afternoon, considering the club is 8-2 in the second game of the series in their last 10 chances.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get too involved due to the team\u2019s 0-9 record as a road underdog of +110 to +150.\u00a0 The Cubs are 1-7 in Gorzelanny\u2019s last eight starts as a favorite and 0-5 when he faces up against the division.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Cubs aim to break a long-standing series losing streak against divisional opponents, but it will be tough against their long-time rivals. St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs St. Louis suffered a 5-0 road loss to the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon, which was the first time the club had been shut out in back-to-back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2197,2286,180,1781,841,1050],"class_list":["post-5822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-aramis-ramirez","tag-blake-hawksworth","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-nl-central","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-tom-gorzelanny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5824,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5822\/revisions\/5824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/chicago-cubs-celebrate-829-150x150.jpg\")
St. Louis suffered a 5-0 road loss to the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon, which was the first time the club had been shut out in back-to-back games since September 1995.\u00a0 It marked the first time in his 2,364 games as Cardinals manager that Tony LaRussa\u2019s team had been blanked in back-to-back games.\u00a0 Before this recent stretch, St. Louis had won eight straight games and outscored opponents 46-17 over that span, but have now been held scoreless in 20 consecutive innings since.\u00a0 The team has bounced back nicely after suffering a loss, going 26-16 on the year (+440), but it\u2019s important to note they are just 3-5 after getting shut out (-260).\u00a0 The Cardinals are 20-16 in day games this season (-210) and the total is 15-19 O\/U in those contests.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n