St. Louis Cardinals-Los Angeles Dodgers: Cards Head to LA for Battle of the Bats

The St. Louis Cardinals narrowly missed earning their third sweep of the season in an extra-innings loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at home Sunday. 

Now the Cards head West to face the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in a Division Series licking last September, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Although they normally rely on their pitching, (they have the lowest ERA in MLB at 2.98), the Cardinals will have to rely more heavily on their ability to score runs in Game One of the series. 

On Monday, Cards manager Tony La Russa will start Blake Hawksworth, whose numbers in the bullpen have been average at best (0-2 with a 5.14 ERA).  Cardinal fans should not exactly expect a shutout, and the first game will be about offense.

In September, the Cardinals scored only six runs in three games against the Dodgers. Big bats Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday were cold, and the rest of the lineup could not pick up the slack. 

Now, the Cards head back to LA with the business-as-usual Pujols, who is tied for first in home runs (14) and RBI (44) in the NL. Holliday is also hitting well again, his batting average jumped above .300 during the last few series, after having been uncharacteristically low for the first two months of the season. 

Cards center fielder Colby Rasmus is also hitting quite well, batting at a .500 clip in his last six games.  After hitting a home run off of the Brewers' Manny Parra on Sunday, Rasmus improved his batting average to .293. 

Hit production will be essential against the Dodgers' rookie Carlos Monasterios, who gave up only two hits in five innings in his last appearance on the mound. The Cardinals' bats will have to heat up if they want to give Hawksworth the support he'll need to get the win.

The Dodgers' big hitters, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, Casey Blake, and Manny Ramirez, will look to exploit Hawksworth's inexperience as a starter.  After Monday, however, they will have to face the Cards' real one-two punch in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. 

The Dodgers will start Hiroki Kuroda (5-4, 3.63 ERA) and Clayton Kershaw (5-3, 3.06 ERA) on Tuesday and Wednesday.