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PHILADELPHIA -- Adam Wainwright and Adam Morgan will be looking to snap slumps of varying degrees on Friday when the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies open a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park.
Wainwright (9-7, 4.72 ERA), the Cardinals' 34-year-old right-hander, matched the shortest start of his career in his last time out, working just two innings in a 13-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs. The three-time All-Star allowed seven runs on six hits and walked three, and afterward called his outing "embarrassing," according to Major League Baseball's official website.
Wainwright, who is winless in his last five outings, also surrendered six runs on nine hits over six innings in losing his previous start to Atlanta.
Morgan's struggles are much more pronounced. Philadelphia's second-year left-hander is 1-7 with a 6.62 ERA and hasn't won since beating the Braves for his lone victory on May 10. In the meantime, he has gone 0-7 with a 7.46 ERA over 12 starts, a drought interrupted by a stint at Triple-A Lehigh Valley in which he went 5-0.
Morgan returned to the parent club last weekend but was forced to depart Sunday's start against Colorado after three innings when he was hit on the elbow by a line drive off the bat of Nick Hundley. Morgan reported no ill effects.
Morgan was saddled with a no-decision in his only start against St. Louis this year, allowing three runs on six hits over four innings. He is 1-0 with a 3.72 ERA in two career starts against the Cardinals.
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Wainwright, who is 6-2 with a 2.72 ERA in 13 career outings against Phillies, told reporters after the loss to the Cubs that he was feeling a little under the weather, but did not wish to use that as an excuse. He also denied that he was tipping his pitches, as was suspected in his previous outing.
"Today, the way I was tipping is that when they got in the batters' box, they knew I was going to throw something in the middle of the plate," Wainwright said, according to MLB.com. "You do that against a good team, and they're going to hit it really hard."
The Cardinals, who hold a one-game lead over Pittsburgh in the race for the National League's second wild-card berth, have won four in a row. The Phillies, who beat the Dodgers 5-4 on Thursday night to salvage the finale of a three-game series, have won four of six.
Maikel Franco's two-run homer off Dodgers reliever Grant Dayton in the seventh inning proved decisive.
"Fastball, right down the middle," said Franco, who jumped on a 1-1 offering. "Put a good contact on it, nothing else. I just go try to put the ball in play, put good contact on it."
It was Franco's 11th game-winning RBI, which leads the Phillies and is tied for fourth in the National League. It was also his team-leading 19th go-ahead RBI.
"With all the swings and misses and expanding the strike zone, he comes up big an awful lot," manager Pete Mackanin said. "You can't deny the numbers that he's put up."
