Play: St. Louis Cardinals
Rating: 8*

The St. Louis Cardinals are coming off a 5-1 win against Pittsburgh on Thursday as they denied their NL Central foe to sweep the four-game series. They'll face another division rival Friday night when traveling to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers. They swept the Brew Crew home at Busch last weekend, and I'm looking for the Cardinals to open the series with a win.

Michael Wacha (5-7, 4.38 ERA) takes the ball for St. Louis. He's held the Brewers to a pair of runs with 13 Ks through 11 innings this year. Cardinals are 4-1 in Wacha's five career starts vs. Brewers and are 7-1 in his last eight starts vs. a team with a losing record.

The Brewers turn to Jimmy Nelson (5-7, 3.65). He's 0-6 with a bloated 8.49 ERA in seven career appearances (six starts) versus St. Louis and the Brew Crew have lost each of his last six outings overall with Nelson 0-4 with a 5.59 ERA in that span. Brewers are 3-13 in Nelson's last 16 starts vs. a team with a winning record.

The Cardinals have outscored the Brewers by a margin of 57-22 in winning seven of nine meetings this season. The dominance continues Friay night.