John Lackey tries for his first road victory of the season when he leads the St. Louis Cardinals against the Philadelphia Phillies Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Lackey is 0-3 with a 6.27 ERA in six road starts in 2015. The right-hander's actual road skid goes back nine starts (0-5) since beating Pittsburgh on Aug. 25, 2014. Since joining the Cardinals at the trade deadline last year, Lackey is 1-6 with a 6.49 ERA in 11 road starts.
In his most recent start, Monday against Minnesota, Lackey pitched eight strong innings. He allowed two runs on five hits to win for the third time in four starts.
During his career, Lackey is 2-4 with a 3.46 ERA in six games against the Phillies.
Aaron Harang aims to snap a career-high tying personal five-start losing streak for the Phillies. The righty suffered a defeat at Baltimore on Monday when he allowed four runs on five hits over six innings. Harang also lost five straight starts during the 2009 season.
Harang's drought spans six starts, back to a May 14 win over the Pirates. He's 7-16 with a 4.39 ERA in 28 starts versus the Cardinals. Harang has dropped his last seven decisions, a span of nine starts, against St. Louis. His last win versus the Cardinals came May 9, 2009, when he was a member of the Reds.
On Friday, Jhonny Peralta drove in three runs as the Cardinals pounded out a 12-4 win. Yadier Molina and Kolten Wong each clubbed two-run home runs while Randal Grichuk was 3-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored for the Cardinals, who have won six of their last eight.
"We catch some heat sometimes when you can't put up the big offensive numbers," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "With a lineup like this it's going to happen. You're not going to be able to throw a 12 up every night, but it's in there."
Tyler Lyons (2-0) won his second straight start as he allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings.
Ryan Howard hit a three-run home run and Cesar Hernandez drove in a run for the Phillies, who had snapped a nine-game losing streak with a victory on Thursday.
Phillippe Aumont's (0-1) first career start was a rough one as he was pounded for six runs on five hits and seven walks in just four innings on the mound. He was making the start in place of an injured Cole Hamels, who was scratched due to a mild right hamstring strain.
"You make mistakes and they live off those mistakes," Aumont said.
The Cardinals swept a three-game series over the Phillies at home from April 28-30.
