First pitch: Friday, 8:15 p.m. ET
Line: St. Louis -120, Los Angeles +110, Total: 8

Two of the NL division leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals, begin a three-game series at Busch Stadium on Friday night.

The Dodgers currently hold a half game lead over the 2014 World Champion Giants in the NL West and have continued to play well with victories in four of the last six games. They gave up a mere four runs in the four wins over that time and won a series against both San Diego and Atlanta at home. L.A’s most recent game was a loss, though, when they failed to get the sweep against the Braves in a 3-2 contest. The offense spread out nine hits as the bullpen earned the loss after pitching three innings with two runs allowed on two hits. OF Alexander Guerrero (.310) hit his ninth homer of the year in the game and has three long balls with five RBI in the past five games. The Cardinals have built up a 5.5-game lead in the NL Central and are riding a four-game winning streak coming into this game. Their last series was a sweep against the Diamondbacks at home where each of the contests was decided by two runs or less with St. Louis outscoring its opponent 13-9. They finished off the sweep on Wednesday in exciting fashion as they walked off in a 4-3 game. The team was a mere 1-for-8 with RISP, but got big homers from both 2B Kolten Wong (.316) and OF Jason Heyward (.239). Also getting a hit was OF Matt Holliday (.320) who was 5-for-13 in the sweep over Arizona. Grabbing the start for the Dodgers will be RHP Mike Bolsinger (3-0, 0.71 ERA) as he goes against veteran RHP John Lackey (2-3, 3.18 ERA) of the host team. Despite the solid record that Los Angeles sports, they are a meager 7-11 when playing on the road and could be in line for another loss against these Cardinals as they are 18-5 at home. The two clubs have played 24 times since the start of the 2013 campaign and St. Louis holds a slight 13-11 edge while grabbing 8-of-12 games in Busch Stadium during that time. When they last played here it was a quick two-game set in which the Cardinals won both times and held the Dodgers to just three runs in the defeats. Trends show that Los Angeles has gone 58-29 (.667) after a loss in the last two seasons as St. Louis is 25-6 (.806) as a favorite of -110 or more this year. OFs Yasiel Puig (Hamstring) and Carl Crawford (Oblique) remain out for the Dodgers in this one as the Cardinals are possibly without 1B Matt Adams (Quad) for the rest of the season and have OFs Jon Jay (Wrist) and Tommy Pham (Quad) also on the disabled list.

After a rough start to his MLB career in Arizona last year where he went 1-6 with a 5.10 ERA and batters hitting .355 BABIP against him, Bolsinger has rebounded with his new club and has been the victor in each of his last three outings. He has benefited on the year from leaving an amazing 96.9% of runners on base with batters hitting a putrid .210 BABIP against him. He’s shown great control (2.1 BB/9), allowing the opposition just 0.36 HR/9 and is forcing batters into groundballs 58.3% of the time. Over the last three games, he has pitched a total of 19.2 innings with one run allowed on nine hits and has a 17:4 K/BB ratio. He has yet to face the Cardinals in his short career and besides the aforementioned Holliday, will need to be careful with 3B Matt Carpenter (.314), 2B Kolten Wong (.316) and SS Jhonny Peralta who are all hitting over .300. He may be facing 1B Mark Reynolds (.253) in the game and could get some strikeouts as the power hitter has struck out in 32.1% of his at-bats. The relievers for Los Angeles have been phenomenal, going 10-8 with a 2.60 ERA (1.11 WHIP) and have successfully saved 11-of-17 (65%) games. Kenley Jansen (0.00 ERA, 4 saves) has been huge since returning from injury and has yet to give up a hit with a 9:0 K/BB ratio over his five innings of work.

Lackey is a true veteran of the game with his 363 career starts and he is on pace to get under a 4.00 ERA for the ninth season; including each of the past three. The Cardinals picked him up last year because of his experience and consistency, and despite striking out a career low 6.04 batters per nine innings in 2015, he has been able to limit the homers (0.48 HR/9) and maintain his solid control (2.5 BB/9). He has not allowed more than three runs in any of his last six starts despite his team going a poor 2-4 in that time and allowed his first four-bagger since his season opener in his most recent outing. He has 11 career starts against the Dodgers and has gone 6-3 (7-4 team record) with a 1.89 ERA (0.93 WHIP) as he was dominant (7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 8 K) when he met them last year. The newest Los Angeles player, 3B Alberto Callaspo (6-for-17, 1 HR, 5 RBI) and 1B Adrian Gonzalez (6-for-17, 4 RBI) have been great off of the righty as SS Jimmy Rollins (1-for-11, 3 K) has had his issues in the matchup. Of course St. Louis has one of the best bullpens in the league once again and they are 12-5 with a 2.20 ERA (1.22 WHIP) and are 18-for-22 (82%) in save opportunities. Trevor Rosenthal (0.81 ERA, 13 saves) has not allowed a run in his last 9.2 frames and has a mere one blown save on the year.