Chicago faces St. Louis following Hendricks' solid showing

Chicago Cubs (31-23, first in the NL Central) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (27-28, fourth in the NL Central)

St. Louis; Friday, 8:15 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Cubs: Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.40 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 67 strikeouts) Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (4-5, 4.77 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 46 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: The Cardinals are 11-13 against NL Central opponents. St. Louis has a collective on-base percentage of .331, led by Paul DeJong with a mark of .385.

The Cubs are 10-8 against opponents from the NL Central. Chicago has slugged .461, good for third in the National League. Anthony Rizzo leads the team with a .589 slugging percentage, including 26 extra-base hits and 15 home runs. This is the first game between these teams in 2019.

TOP PERFORMERS: Marcell Ozuna leads the Cardinals with 28 extra base hits and is batting .241. Paul Goldschmidt has 12 hits and is batting .000 over the last 10 games for St. Louis.

Rizzo leads the Cubs with 15 home runs home runs and is slugging .589. Kyle Schwarber is 9-for-41 with a double, a triple, four home runs and six RBIs over the last 10 games for Chicago.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 4-6, .220 batting average, 4.52 ERA, outscored by one run

Cubs: 4-6, .265 batting average, 5.36 ERA, outscored by eight runs

Cardinals Injuries: Alex Reyes: 10-day IL (finger), Mike Mayers: 10-day IL (shoulder), Brett Cecil: 60-day IL (wrist/forearm), Yadier Molina: day-to-day (hand).

Cubs Injuries: Allen Webster: 10-day IL (hand), Pedro Strop: 10-day IL (hamstring), Brandon Morrow: 60-day IL (elbow), Mike Montgomery: day-to-day (finger), Kendall Graveman: 60-day IL (elbow), Xavier Cedeno: 10-day IL (wrist), Tony Barnette: 60-day IL (shoulder).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.