Mets Open Series Against Pujols, Cardinals In St. Louis

ST. LOUIS-- After avoiding a possibly very ugly situation by defeating the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, the Mets will now head to St. Louis, where they will face the best player in the game.

It'll be Oliver Perez vs. Albert Pujols on Friday night and man is that scary. For his career, Pujols owns Oliver Perez. He's 11-for-28 lifetime (.393) with three home runs and nine RBI.

This season, Pujols is already batting an even .400 with five home runs and an unfathomable 15 runs batted in. It's really hard to believe what kind of player Pujols will go down as in baseball history.

For Perez, it'll be a start that he must control walks like never before. With Matt Holliday protecting Pujols, there's every chance that Holliday will have the chances at major run-scoring hits. If Perez wants to be careful with Pujols, he'd better be on his "A" game.

The key for Perez will be without a doubt, trying to limit the damage against the Cardinals big two, and have success with all other hitters (Ryan Ludwick, Colby Rasmus, Skip Shumaker).

Starting for the Cardinals will be Chris Carpenter. Carpenter, after pitching against the Mets in the 2006 NLCS, took nearly three years to find his way of dominance.

He hurt himself on opening day 2007 ironically against the Mets and never pitched consistently again until 2009.

Last season, Carpenter was worthy of the NL Cy Young Award. He was shockingly edged out by Giants ace Tim Lincecum. His numbers were spectacular: 17-4, 2.24 ERA, 192.2 IP, 156 hits. He finished second in the voting. This season, although he's 1-0, his ERA is a tad high at 5.73.

If the Mets can find any offense against him, they would hope that Perez can find some magic against the Cardinals big sluggers, in order to hand it off to their ever-improving bullpen, which keeps on rolling.

On Thursday afternoon against Colorado, both Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez pitched shutout innings in the eighth and ninth to close out a Mets win. If the Mets can stop Pujols and Holliday, they should be fine. If...that is.

Oliver Perez vs. St. Louis (career)

2-5, 4.84 ERA, 74.1 IP, 77 hits, 33 BB, 62 SO

Oliver Perez vs. St. Louis (2006 NLCS Game 7)

ND, 1.50 ERA, 6 IP, 4 hits, 2 BB, 4 SO

Chris Carpenter vs. New York (career)

1-4, 4.80 ERA, 30 IP, 25 hits, 10 BB, 20 SO

2009 season series (New York vs. St. Louis)

St. Louis won series 4-3