St. Louis Cardinals (48-30) at Oakland Athletics (46-34) Game #79 N O.co Coliseum N June 28, 2013 Shelby Miller (8-5, 2.35) vs. Bartolo Colon (10-2, 2.93) K REDBIRD RUNDOWN: The 2012 N.L. Wild Card Champion St. Louis Cardinals are in their 122nd season of play TONIGHT’S GAME : The Cardinals continue an in the National League...the Cardinals snapped their season-high 3-game losing streak with a 13-5 win on Tue. at 8-game (1-1 at HOU, OAK-3, LAA-3), 10-day in - HOU, but lost 4-3 to the Astros on Wed. to drop into a 1st place tie with PIT in the NL Central...they had held sole terleague roadtrip tonight with the first of three possession of 1st place since April 30 and had a season-best 4.0 game lead as recently as June 9...the Cards had an games here in Oakland...first pitch is set for 9:05 open date yesterday...St. Louis is tied with the Pirates with a Major League best 48-30 record and they lead the p.m. CT...the Cardinals snapped a season-high 3 majors with a +113 run differential. game losing streak on Tuesday, but have lost 4 of K INTERLEAGUE: The Cardinals began a string of 11-straight interleague games last Friday (TEX-3, at HOU-2, at their last 5 and are 13-12 in the month of June. OAK-3, at LAA-3) playing their 2nd ever regular season series with Texas...St. Louis is 4-5 (3-1 on road) in interleague play this season, and the Cardinals are 129-115 (.529) all-time in interleague play, the top winning pct. amongst all CARDINALS vs. OAKLAND: NL teams... RARE BIRD SIGHTINGS: The Cardinals this weekend are making only their 2nd appearance in Oakland, Season: 3 games having last appeared at the Coliseum in 2007 when they won 2-of-3 games...the Redbirds will make their first ever 2013: 0-0 (0-0 at OAK) visit to Anaheim next week when they will take on the Angels in a 3-game series, completing the circuit of current 2012: Teams are meeting for 1st time since 2010 MLB cities that they had never visited...the Texas Rangers last weekend became the last team to have visited St. All-Time: 7-2 (2-1 at O.co Coliseum) Louis prior to this season, although they did get to the Mound City for the 2011 Fall Classic. Last Time STL sweep: 6/15-17/04 at STL K DESIGNATED TO HIT: Cardinals designated hitters are the all-time leaders amongst N.L. teams in batting (.318; Last Time OAK sweep: None 151-475), on-base pct. (.394) & slugging pct. (.537)...St. Louis has employed Matt Holliday (twice) and Carlos Beltran (twice) as its designated hitters this season...they are batting a combined .286 (4-14) with 1 HR & 1 RBI as DH’s. RECORD BREAKDOWN K NO SWEAT: Edward Mujica last Wed. converted his 21st straight save opportunity to begin the season...it’s the By Day By Month best start to a season for a Redbirds closer since 1995 when Tom Henke was perfect in his first 22 save opps, the Monday 6-4 Spring 16-15-1 club record...”Chief” Mujica has posted 13 saves without allowing a baserunner this season... Lee Smith had 22 Tuesday 9-3 April 15-11 “perfect” saves for the Redbirds in 1992 among his league-leading 43 rescues. Wednesday 8-5 May 20-7 K CENTERPIECE: Jon Jay owns the NL’s longest active errorless streak (221 games/519 chances) for centerfielders Thursday 5-2 June 13-12 dating back to his last error on Aug. 24, 2011...his 221-game errorless streak is 2nd only to Curt Flood (226 games, Friday 7-4 July 24 games 9/3/65 to 6/2/67) amongst Cardinals outfielders. Saturday 8-5 August 29 games K THREE’S COMPANY & FOUR WAS 1954: For the first time since 1954, the Cardinals have a trio of batters (Molina, Sunday 5-7 September 27 games Carpenter, Craig) with 94 or more hits through the team’s first 78 games...In 1954, four Cardinals (Schoendienst- By Seriies 116, Moon-106, Jablonksi-105 & Musial-104) had 100+ hits in the team’s first 78 contests... Molina is currently 2G 3G 4G leading the N.L. in batting (.357), the 17th best start in franchise history thru 78 games. Won 1 12 3 BIRD BANTER... HOUSTON SERIES: .303 (23-76, 5 HR) ROADTRIP: .303 (23-76, 5 HR) Lost --- 4 --- Split 4 --- 2 K #53 MATT ADAMS: Streak: 2G (2-5, .400) Series: 1-4, .250 Roadtrip: 1-4, .250 Sweeps 1 1 1 [ Leads STL w/7 PH (7-21,.333, 3rd ML) ... hit in 12 of 17 starts, 7 multi-hit...HRed in 3-str. games 4/9-14...hit all 4 HR at home Opp. Sweeps --- 1 --- K #3 CARLOS BELTRAN: Streak: 2G (3-7, .429) Series: 3-7, .429, HR Roadtrip: 3-7, .429, HR By DIIVIISIION [ Hit 18th HR (T5th NL) on Tue....had 14G hit streak (5/28-6/15) w/6 HR...48 RBI, T9th; 7th NL slug (.546)...T1st (A. Craig) in Home Road Total NL w/.445 BA w/RISP...352 career HR is 5th all-time, switch-hitters NL Central 12-7 8-3 20-10 K NL East 3-1 8-5 11-6 #13 MATT CARPENTER: Streak: 7G (11-30, .367) Series: 2-11, .182 Roadtrip: 2-11, .182 NL West 6-4 7-5 13-9 [ Leads NL with 31 multi-hit games; 4 in last 7 G...had career-best 18G hit streak (5/21-6/9)... .316 BA (8th NL); 94 H (T5th); AL Central 1-1 2-0 3-1 .396 OBP (6th) ...21 2B (T6th); 58 runs (2nd); 34 BB (T9th)...hit leadoff in 55 G, reached in 50...played in 74 of 78 G AL West 0-3 1-1 1-4 K #21 ALLEN CRAIG: Streak: 8G (12-29, .414) Series: 5-9, .556, 2 HR Roadtrip: 5-9, .556, 2 HR TOTALS 22-16 26-14 48-30 [ Had 4-hit G on Tue. (3-1Bs, HR)...ranks 7th in NL BA (.320), T5th in hits (94), 2nd in RBI (62)...25 RBI in June, 2nd to ARI’s Goldschimdt (26)... .455 BA w/RISP is T1st in NL (Beltran) & RBI (53) w/RISP is 1st...28 multi-hit G-T6th, 17 GA-RBI T3rd MIKE MATHENY: Mike Matheny last season be - K #48 TONY CRUZ: Streak: 0-3 Series: 1-4, .250 Roadtrip: 1-4, .250 came the 49th manager in St. Louis Cardinals his - tory... in his first year at the helm in 2012, Mike [ Started 7 games (last; Wed. at HOU), appeared in 18...had PH-1B, scored on Tue...has AB/RBI ratio of 8.25 guided the Cardinals to the N.L. Championship K #33 DANIEL DESCALSO: Streak: 0-4 Series: 0-2, .000 Roadtrip: 0-2, .000 round of the playoffs, having captured the 2nd [ Has 5, 3-hit games...hit 1st career slam 5/21 at SD (5 RBI)...batted .368 in May; .339 in June...batting .292 when starting Wild Card berth on the next-to-last day of the reg - K #23 DAVID FREESE: Streak: 0-4 Series: 1-7, .143, HR Roadtrip: 1-7, .143, HR ular season...he became the first rookie manager [ Hit 4th career triple on Sat...had career best 20G hit strk (5/17-6/11)...hits in 27 of last 32 G... .348 OBP w/2 strike (3rd in NL) to lead the Cardinals to the postseason since K Eddie Dyer in 1946...he won his 100th career #7 MATT HOLLIDAY: Streak: 2G (2-8, .250) Series: 2-8, .250 Roadtrip: 2-8, .250 game on Apr. 23, 2013, at Washington in his [ 3rd in NL runs (57)...hit GS in 10th inn at CIN (6/9)...reached by H/BB in 34 of last 38 G...33 BB (T12th)...7 GWRBI (T9th) 182nd game...Matheny had a 13-year Major K #19 JON JAY: Streak: 1G (1-1, 1.000) Series: 1-5, .200 Roadtrip: 1-5, .200 League career playing with MIL, TOR, STL and SF, [ T3rd in NL int. BB (6)...32 RBI ranks 3rd as NL CFer...leads team w/76 G...T10th in NL HBP (6)...no errors since 8/24/11 winning four Rawlings Gold Gloves (‘00, ‘03-’05), K #38 PETE KOZMA: Streak: 0-2 Series: 2-7, .286 Roadtrip: 2-7, .286 and retiring from the game in 2006 due to concus - [ Leads all MLB rookies in games (75), 2nd with 64 hits and 27 RBI...57 H from #8 spot leads MLB...started 71/78 gms sion symptoms...he holds the M.L. catching record K #4 YADIER MOLINA: Streak: 2G (4-8, .500) Series: 4-8, .500, HR Roadtrip: 4-8, .500, HR for consecutive errorless games (252) and for con - secutive errorless chances (1,565). [ Leads NL in batting at .357 and doubles with (26)...2nd in NL w/99 hits...HRed on Wed. while making 2nd career start at 1B ... 31 multi-hit gms T1st NL ...played in 73/78 G’s ...tops MLB in innings caught (625.1) & 2nd in catchers ERA (3.11). Cardinals Disabled List K #43 SHANE ROBINSON: Streak: 1G (1-3, .333) Series: 1-3, .333 Roadtrip: 1-3, .333 Date Games [ Batting .316 in June (6-19) w/7 RBI (season, 8 RBI)...HRed (6/4 & 11)...3 BB, career-high 5/5 at MIL...T2nd STL w/3 SB.