Sat Sep 6 11:16:51 2008

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Pujols tries to continue torrid pace in middle tilt with Fish

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(Sports Network) - Despite Albert Pujols' continued hot-hitting, the St. Louis Cardinals have been unable to come up with a winning streak. The club will try to avoid falling further back in the National League wild card race in the continuation of a three-game series with the Florida Marlins tonight at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals fell in extra innings to the Marlins yesterday, giving them six losses in their last seven games. Coupled with Milwaukee's win on Friday, St. Louis is now six games back of the Brewers for the wild card spot.

The Marlins are nine games back as well and seven behind NL East-leading New York.

Pujols had a pair of doubles in Friday's 4-1, 11-inning setback. He leads the majors with a .360 average and has a hit in 15 of his last 17 games. He is hitting .470 (31-for-66) in that span with 10 multi-hit games.

Yet, St. Louis hasn't won back-to-back games since August 20-22 and is just 27-30 since July 1.

Dan Uggla singled home the go-ahead run for the Marlins, who themselves won consecutive games for the first time since July 30-31. Mike Jacobs homered in the ninth to force extra innings.

The Marlins will now try to win three straight for the first time since a four-game run from July 9-12.

Florida's victory in last night's series opener was just its second in five games versus the Cardinals this year. The Marlins haven't defeated St. Louis in two straight since August 5-6, 2003.

Scott Olsen will try to avoid a sixth consecutive losing decision tonight for the Marlins.

The left-hander is 0-5 over his last eight starts, posting a 5.70 earned run average in that span. Having not won since July 19, Olsen was tagged for six runs on seven hits -- including three homers -- in a loss to the Mets on Sunday.

Olsen, 24, is 6-9 with a 4.35 ERA on the season and 1-3 in four career starts versus the Cards with a 6.12 ERA. That includes a loss on August 14 in which he gave up three runs on 10 hits over seven innings.

He has had some success against Pujols, who is hitting just .231 (3-for-13) lifetime against him with a homer and four RBI.

Todd Wellemeyer starts for the Cardinals and has lost back-to-back starts. He pitched well last time out though, holding Houston to just a run on four hits over seven innings without a walk in a 3-0 loss on Sunday, one day after the right-hander celebrated his 30th birthday.

Wellemeyer is 11-6 with a 3.76 ERA this year. He won his lone career start against St. Louis on August 14, throwing 7 2/3 shutout innings.