Cubs open series at home against Cardinals

Posted September 28, 2018 7:00 am

By The Associated Press

St. Louis Cardinals (87-72, third in NL Central) vs. Chicago Cubs (93-66, first in NL Central)

Chicago; Friday, 2:20 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Cardinals: Adam Wainwright (2-3, 4.08 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 33 strikeouts) Cubs: Kyle Hendricks (13-11, 3.49 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 159 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Chicago and St. Louis meet to open the three-game series. The Cubs enter the matchup with a one-game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central. Chicago has a collective .259 batting average this season, led by Ben Zobrist's .310 mark. The Cardinals have dropped their last three ballgames. St. Louis' lineup has 164 home runs this year, Matt Carpenter paces them with 36 homers. In their last meeting on July 29, Kyle Hendricks earned the win in a 5-2 victory for the Cubs.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jose Martinez has 160 hits for the Cardinals this year. His .306 batting average is seventh in the National League. Yadier Molina has three home runs and 13 RBIs over his past 10 games for St. Louis. Javier Baez has 34 home runs and 111 RBIs on the season for the Cubs. Daniel Murphy has 14 hits and is batting .359 over his past 10 games for Chicago.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 6-4, .256 batting average, 3.90 ERA, outscored opponents by 12 runs. Cubs: 6-4, .254 batting average, 4.04 ERA, outscored opponents by one run.

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

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