Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals will host Barry Bonds and the San Fransisco Giants this weekend. Bonds’ is four homeruns away from tying Hank Aaron’s all time homerun record of 755, and 5 away from beating it. Chances are, Barry will NOT do it in St. Louis. Regardless, this should be a good series. The Cardinals come in with an overall record of 39-43, winners of 2 straight, including 3 out of 4 from Arizona, and 7.5 games behind the Brewers and 3.0 games back of the Cubs. The Cardinals are 20-20 at home so far in 2007. The Giants come in with a record of 36-47, last place in the NL West, 11.5 games behind the leaders- San Diego Padres. The Giants are 15-26 on the road this year, and lost their last game, to the Reds 6-3.

The pitching matchups for this weekend include tonight, Noah Lowry 8-6, 3.46 v. Mike Maroth 0-0, 5.23. Lowry has won 3 of his last 4 starts including a 6.2 inning, 5 hit, 1 run against the Diamondbacks, and a 7-2 win over the Yankees. Lowry is 1-2 with a 4.05 career against the Cardinals. Earlier in the year he went 7 innings, giving up 4 hits, and 2 runs in a win over the Cardinals. Maroth has only pitched two games with the Cardinals, one good, one bad. He received a no decision in both games. His first outing, he went 7.1 innings, giving up just 2 hits, 1 run, including 2 walks, and 4 strikeouts. His last outing, he only lasted 3 innings, giving up 6 hits, 5 runs, walking one and striking out 2, in a game the Cardinals won 11-7. He is 0-1 career against the Giants, with a 4.91 ERA. Pujols is 0-2 on the season against Lowry, and 3-8, .375 career with no extra base hits against Lowry.

Saturday’s matchup pits Giants righthander Tim Lincecum against Cardinals righthander Braden Looper. Lincecum is 3-2, with a 4.64 ERA on the season, in his first full season in the major leagues. His last outing, he went 7 innings, giving up just 3 hits, striking out 12 batters, in a 13-0 win over the Diamondbacks. Before that, Tim had not won in his last 6 starts, including 4 no decisions. He has never faced the Cardinals. Braden Looper will be making his second start since re-joining the Cardinals, off the disabled list. He is 6-6, with a 4.65 ERA. Braden is 0-1 in his career against the Giants. In his last start on July 2, Looper went 6 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 runs, all earned, in a game in which the Cardinals won 11-3.

Sunday’s matchup has the Giants ace, Barry Zito, who has underachieved so far during the 2007 season, against Cardinals righthander Todd Wellemeyer. Zito comes in 6-8, with a 4.65 ERA, while Wellemeyer is 2-1 with a 4.74 ERA. Zito has not won since June 4th, including three straight no decisions, coming after 3 losses. In his last start against the Reds he went 5 innings, giving up 2 hits, and 3 runs, in a game the Giants lost to the Reds 7-3. Zito is 0-0 in his career against the Cardinals in his one career outing, a game in which he went 5 innings. Wellemeyer is coming off a poor outing, his first loss of the season, in which the Cardinals lost 7-1 to the Diamondbacks. In his last 10 starts, Todd has only won twice, lost 1, and picked up 7 no decisions, in games in which the Cardinals are 9-1 in. Wellemeyer has never faced the Giants in his career. Albert is 1-2 lifetime against Zito with 2 rbi’s.

Good luck to Albert and the Cardinals, as they look to get back closer to .500 before the All Star Break!

Our man, Albert Pujols picked up two hits, and two rbi’s in a 11-3 Cardinal win Monday night. Russ Springer picked up the win, to improve to 4-1 on the season. The Brewers and Cubs both won so the Cardinals remain in third place 9.5 back of the Brewers, and 3.0 behind the Cubs.

The Arizona Diamondbacks are coming to St. Louis for four games. The Diamondbacks have had a pretty good 2007 season, and are led by a slew of good pitchers. The Diamondbacks come into the series with a 46-37 record, 1.5 games behind front running San Diego, and only a half game behind second place Los Angeles. Arizona has lost two straight, both to the San Fransisco Giants, including a 13-0 drubbing on Sunday. Arizona is 21-18 on the road, and 9-4 against National League Central teams.

The Cardinals have won two of three, all in Cincinnati and come in with a record of 36-42, 9.5 games out of first place, and 3.0 games out of second place. The Cardinals are 17-19 at home, and 6-9 against NL West teams.

The Diamondbacks are going to throw three tough pitchers in a row at the Cardinals in the first three games of the series. In Game One, Brandon Webb, last years Cy Young award winner, will face Braden Looper, who just came off the disabled list. Webb comes in with a record of 8-5 and a 3.05 ERA, coming off 7 solid innings in a 2-0 win over the LA Dodgers in his last start. Looper is 6-6 with a 4.66 ERA, and he has not pitched since a 14-3 loss to Oakland on June 15th. Albert is 3-15 in his career against Webb for a .200BA. He has struck out twice and walked once. In those three hits, two were singles and one was a double.

In Game Two, the Cardinals will face lefthander Randy Johnson. The Cardinals will counter with Todd Wellemeyer. Johnson is 6-6 in his career against the Cardinals, and 4-3 with a 3.81 ERA during the 2007 season. In his last outing June 28th against the Dodgers, the Unit only lasted 3 innings, giving up 6 hits and 4 runs, in a 9-5 loss. Randy has struggled to pitch more than 6 innings this season. Wellemeyer is 2-0, with a 4.11 ERA, and in his last three starts, he has received no decisions, going 6, 5 and 3.1 innings in those three starts. The Cardinals have won 9 of his last 10 starts. Pujols has had some success against the Big Unit, going 7-17 for a .412 batting average, including 3 doubles, 2 homeruns, and 7 rbi’s. Albert has never walked, and struck out three times while facing Johnson.

In Game Three, on Wednesday, the fourth of July, Livan Hernandez will throw for the Diamondbacks and be opposed by Brad Thompson of the Cardinals. Livan is 5-5 in his career against the Cardinals, and 5-5 with a 4.58 for the 2007 season. Livan went 8 innings last week in a no decision, in a game the Diamondbacks won 4-3. Livan has not picked up a win since May 27 against Houston. Thompson is 6-3 on the season with a 4.88 ERA. Last week against the Reds, Brad went 6 innings, giving up 6 hits and 2 runs, picking up a no decision in a game the Cardinals won 4-2. Pujols is batting a career .308 against Livan, 8 hits in 26 at bats. Albert has hit one homerun, and drove home 2 in those 26 at bats. He has walked four times, while striking out five.

In Game Four, on Thursday, Doug Davis will pitch for the Diamondbacks, and be opposed by Cardinals righthander Adam Wainwright. Davis is 5-9 with a 4.29 in 2007, while Wainwright is 6-7, with a 4.81 ERA. Pujols comes into Thursday’s game with a .348 career batting average against Davis. In Albert’s 23 at bats, he has 8 hits, including 4 doubles, 2 homeruns, and 8 rbi’s. Davis has walked him 7 times, while only getting him to strike out twice.

All four of these games are evening games. Monday and Tuesday’s games will start at 7:10pm CST, while Wednesday and Thursday are set to begin at 6:15pm CST. While the Cardinals and Diamondbacks battle, the front running Brewers will square off for four games in Pittsburgh with the Pirates, while second place Chicago travels to the nation’s capital to play the Nationals in a four game set.

Once again, Albert Pujols was selected to the 2007 All Star team. This year, he is not a starter on the team, due to his numbers being down, and Prince Fielder’s numbers going way up, but he was selected as a reserve. Congrats to Albert on yet another All Star selection!

There were six homeruns hit on Sunday afternoon between the Cardinals and Reds, fortunately for the Cardinals half of those were hit by them, and one big shot did the Reds in Sunday afternoon. Ryan Ludwick’s three run homerun in the fourth inning, his second of the game, put the Cardinals ahead 8-5, and that was enough to hold on for them, as the Cardinals won 11-7. Ludwick’s two homeruns and 4 rbi’s, put him at 6 homeruns on the year. Chris Duncan also homered for the Cardinals, who won 2 of 3 from the last place Reds. Our man Albert Pujols went 1-2, with 2 walks and a rbi, to raise his batting average up to .307 on the season.

Mike Maroth was not very good, in his second Cardinal outing. He only went 3 innings, gave up 6 hits, 5 runs, all earned, walked one, struck out two and gave up two homeruns(Brandon Phillips, and Ken Griffey Jr.). He did not receive a decision in the outing. Troy Percival in his second outing of the season, picked up his second win, by getting out of the fourth inning jam, going 1 inning, no hits, 1 run, 1 earned, 1 walk and 1 strikeout. Troy Percival is now 2-0 on the season for the Cardinals.

This win put the Cardinals at 36-42 on the season and 9.5 games out of first place, and 3.0 games behind second place.