(Sports Network) - The St. Louis Cardinals will try to exit Canada with a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays when the two clubs close out an interleague series tonight from Rogers Centre.
St. Louis rode Jaime Garcia to a win in the series opener and Chris Carpenter pushed his mark to 9-1 with eight shutout innings of three-hit ball and seven strikeouts last night. Carpenter walked four batters in the 1-0 win and has red-hot outfielder Matt Holliday to thank for his latest triumph.
Holliday had a clutch RBI single off of Blue Jays reliever Kevin Gregg with two outs in the top of the ninth inning to aid St. Louis' 11-hit attack and owns five homers and 11 runs batted in over his last five games.
"It was a breaking ball and I kind of caught it out in front," Holliday said on the team's site. "He was throwing me cutters and fastballs and [with the count] 3-2 he throws me, I don't know what he calls it, maybe a slider or a slurve."
Ryan Franklin notched his 14th save in the ninth, while Albert Pujols had four hits in St. Louis' sixth win in eight tries. Randy Winn finished with three hits, including a single in the deciding ninth inning before coming home on Holliday's base hit.
The NL Central-leading Cardinals are one game ahead of Cincinnati in the division standings. The Reds have won three straight to keep pace.
Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright is trying to catch Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez for the most wins in the majors and will shoot for his 11th victory tonight up. Jimenez currently has 13 wins, while Wainwright is 10-4 with a 2.23 ERA in 15 outings this season.
Wainwright has won two straight and four of his last five starts, including a strong eight-inning performance last Saturday in a 4-3 victory versus the Oakland Athletics. He limited the A's to one unearned run and five hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
The right-hander hopes to even his 3-4 road mark tonight in his first career appearance against the Blue Jays.
Toronto hopes to salvage the finale of this set and wasted a valiant effort from young hurler Ricky Romero on Wednesday. Just like his counterpart Carpenter, Romero also threw eight shutout innings and gave up eight hits with five K's and one walk in the no-decision.
"It was a tough one, a pitchers' duel," said Romero. "Facing [Carpenter], I knew it was going to be a tough one. It was just a good game,"
Gregg was dealt the loss for giving up the only run of the game on three hits for the Blue Jays, who have dropped three in a row since a three-game winning streak. Toronto is seven games off the pace in the American League East.
If history has any bearing on what Brandon Morrow's results will be tonight, the right-hander appears to be headed for a win versus St. Louis. Morrow has alternated wins in losses in all nine of his decisions this season for the Jays, and is 4-5 with a 4.97 ERA in 14 starts.
Morrow did not record a decision his last time out in a 3-2 win over San Francisco on Thursday, one start after losing at Colorado. He held the Giants to a pair of runs in six innings of work and owns a 4-1 record in seven home starts.
A former first-round pick of Seattle in 2006, Morrow has never faced St. Louis.
These two clubs are meeting for the first time since the Blue Jays took two of three at home over the Cardinals from June 13-15, 2005. St. Louis swept three meetings back in 2003 at Busch Stadium.