Cardinals, Wainwright aim to add to Milwaukee's woes

(SportsNetwork.com) - Adam Wainwright attempts to avenge his only loss of the season Saturday when the St. Louis Cardinals continue their three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.

Wainwright was terrific against Cincinnati on Sunday, as he held the Reds to a run and seven hits over eight innings to improve to 2-1, while lowering his ERA to 1.71.

He had given up five runs (3 earned) in a loss to Milwaukee in his previous start.

"I'll continue to grow in my velocity, and the sharpness of my offspeed breaking ball is getting better at times," Wainwright said. "My breaking ball and cutter are still not where I want them to be. Neither is my fastball location or velocity. We'll just keep building and building and building until we get to where we want to be."

Wainwright was banged around by the Brewers two starts ago, serving up eight hits in seven innings of work. He has faced Milwaukee 31 times (24 starts) and is 12-8 against them with a 2.37 ERA.

Milwaukee, meanwhile, will counter with righty Wily Peralta, who has lost his last two starts. Peralta was hit hard by the Reds on Monday, allowing six runs and eight hits in seven innings. He had surrendered four runs in five frames to the Cards two starts ago.

Peralta is just 4-5 lifetime versus the Cardinals with a 4.58 ERA in 10 starts.

St. Louis rolled in Friday's opener, as Jason Heyward and Jhonny Peralta both hit solo home runs to back a solid start from Carlos Martinez in the Cardinals' 3-0 win.

Martinez (2-0) lasted a career-high seven innings, struck out eight and scattered four hits and two walks to pick up the win.

"I tried to keep the baseball down because the ball here flies a lot," Martinez said through a translator. "I feel really happy, really good."

Yadier Molina plated a run with a groundout in the second inning, and Heyward and Peralta took Matt Garza deep in the third and sixth frames, respectively.

Garza (1-3) posted a quality start but got little help from his teammates. He was charged with three runs on seven hits over six innings.

"I threw the ball well, but not well enough," Garza said.

The Brewers snapped an eight-game losing streak on Thursday and were looking to win consecutive games for the first time this season. Instead they were shut out for the third time and fell to an MLB-worst 3-14.

Milwaukee lost two of three games at St. Louis from April 13-16.