Two guys coming off heroic series will put their hot streaks on display on the same field Friday night when the visiting St. Louis Cardinals open a three-game set against the San Francisco Giants.
Both teams enter the closing series of the first half in fine form, with the Cardinals having won two of three from the Mariners in Seattle and the Giants having won four in a row, capped by a three-game sweep of the Padres in San Diego.
Cardinals rookie right-hander Dakota Hudson (6-4, 3.40 ERA) will duel Giants veteran lefty Drew Pomeranz (2-8, 6.25) in the series opener.
Cardinals second baseman Tommy Edman and Giants third baseman Evan Longoria are as responsible as anyone for their teams' recent success.
Edman, a rookie not in the starting lineup Wednesday and hitting a modest .257 at the time, belted a pinch-hit, three-run homer to break a ninth-inning tie in a 5-2 win, then provided a go-ahead, two-run single in the seventh inning of a 5-4 victory Thursday.
The 24-year-old California native, who played his college ball at Stanford in the San Francisco Bay Area, noted after his Wednesday heroics that his approach at the plate wasn't about to change just because he'd hit his third home run.
Then he proved it with his bat in the series finale, which allowed the Cardinals to win two of three in the interleague series.
"Damage is never something I intend to do," he told reporters. "I never try to swing for home runs."
Edman has never faced Pomeranz, whose one career start against the Cardinals came as a member of the Colorado Rockies in 2012. He's 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in three career appearances, including the one start, against St. Louis.
Pomeranz is coming off one of his best outings of the season. He threw five shutout innings with seven strikeouts in an eventual 4-3 home loss to Arizona last Saturday.
He has struck out 18 in just 10 innings in his last two starts.
Pomeranz can only hope for the type of support Giants hitters gave their pitchers in 13-2, 10-4 and 7-5 wins over the Padres earlier this week before getting Thursday off.
Longoria was among the biggest contributors, collecting four home runs, two doubles and a single in the series, while driving in nine runs and scoring seven.
A disappointment since being acquired by the Giants in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays last season, Longoria's average went from .222 to .238 over the three-day explosion.
Veteran teammate Kevin Pillar insisted he saw it coming.
"He looks like the Longo of old," Pillar observed to reporters after Wednesday's win. "People get maybe a misconception about guys who have been doing this a long time and have been paid and think they're OK with not being the best version of themselves. But he's constantly working."
Longoria on Friday will take his cracks against Hudson, who ranks among the top rookies in the National League this season in wins (six), ERA (3.40) and strikeouts (62).
He'd padded his stats by going 4-0 over an eight-game stretch before enduring his worst outing of the season Saturday at San Diego, bombed for seven runs in 1 2/3 innings. Only one of the runs was earned, however.
He has faced the Giants twice, throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings and allowing just one hit.
--Field Level Media