The St. Louis Cardinals arrive in California for their first road trip of the season Friday afternoon, set to take on the San Francisco Giants in the first of a three-game set. The Cardinals haven't been able to score runs all season, and it won't get any easier with the Giants, who bring Jonathan Sanchez, Matt Cain, and Barry Zito to the table against Jake Westbrook, Jaime Garcia, and Kyle Lohse. At least, for fans of run-scoring, Chris Carpenter and Tim Lincecum are off the table.
Westbrook is coming off an ugly first start in which he allowed eight runs in four innings, thanks to 11 baserunners and a poor performance from Jason Motte, who's had an uneven start to his third full season in the big leagues. Sanchez took a hard-luck loss in his first start of the season, allowing two earned runs in five innings while striking out eight. (A leadoff walk to pitcher Chad Billingsley and a fielding error of his own doing didn't help matters.)
Follow along all series with the extremely active Cardinals fans at Viva El Birdos.