St Louis (94-54) at Chicago Cubs (72-75), 3:20 pm EDT
CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals look to erase any of the technicalities from their division title and lock up the National League Central outright Friday when they continue their four-game set against the Chicago Cubs.
The Cardinals locked up their fourth division title in six seasons Thursday by defeating the Cubs, 6-1, in a game that was called with two outs in the ninth
inning after a lengthy rain delay at Wrigley Field.
Coupled with Philadelphia's loss to Atlanta, St. Louis is ensured a better record than any second-place team in the NL with the exception of division rival Houston, which beat Florida on Thursday and only can tie for the division title. Should the Cardinals and Astros finish with the same record, St. Louis would be the NL Central champions based on a better head-to-head record, while Houston would be awarded the wild card.
The Cardinals look to eliminate all of the circumstantiality surrounding the division title with Matt Morris (14-8, 4.04 ERA) on the mound. The righthander is looking to become the team's fourth 15-game winner, but he'll have to solve the Cubs for the first time this season.
Morris, who entered the season 11-3 against the Cubs, is 0-3 with an 8.04 ERA in three starts against them this year. He has surrendered six of his 17 homers to the Cubs, who are batting at a startling .370 clip against him.
The 31-year-old righthander has dropped three straight starts for the first time this season, including Sunday's 7-2 loss to the New York Mets in which he allowed four runs in 6 1/3 innings.
Chicago counters with Glendon Rusch (6-8, 4.62), who has been impressive in his last two starts, going 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA. He yielded two runs in 5 1/3 frames Sunday in a 3-2 win at San Francisco. The win marked the Cubs' second straight in games in which Rusch has appeared after the team had dropped 10 straight games in which the lefthander pitched.
In 22 career games - 17 starts - against the Cardinals, Rusch is 5-6 with a 4.81 ERA. He is 1-0 with a 1.86 ERA in three games - one start - against them this season.
The Cubs have won eight of 13 meetings between the teams this year to lock up their first season series victory over their archrivals since 2001.