Braves' opponent: St. Louis Cardinals
Keep an eye on: The standings. The St. Louis Cardinals have the best record in baseball at 60-34 (entering Thursday night's makeup game against Kansas City) and they also have the best home record in baseball at 33-12. It's probably not surprising to see that the Cardinals also lead the majors with a 2.67 ERA – and that's with ace Adam Wainwright out of the year following an Achilles injury.
Who's hot: Yadier Molina is 9-for-21 (.429) with six RBIs in his past four games, including a bases-loaded triple that helped the Cardinals rally past the White Sox 3-2 on Wednesday.
Who's not: Matt Carpenter is 2-for-23 (.083) in his past six games.
Braves connection: Jason Heyward hit just .217 with two home runs, four RBIs and one stolen base in April, his first month with the Cardinals. Since May 1, however, he has hit .307 with a .365 on-base percentage, seven home runs, 29 RBIs and 12 stolen bases in 69 games entering Thursday. Jordan Walden, another piece in that November trade for Shelby Miller and minor leaguer Tyrell Jenkins, has been out since April 30 with right biceps inflammation. He started a minor league rehabilitation assignment Wednesday in Double-A. Former Brave Matt Belisle has been out since June 26 with a ligament strain in his forearm.
In the news: Matt Holliday, who was unable to start the All-Star game in left field, returned from the disabled list Friday after 31 games out with a strained right quadriceps. Four days later he hit a grand slam off White Sox rookie Carlos Rodon to help the Cardinals beat Chicago 8-5. It was Holliday's first home run since May 12. Holliday has been DHing in the interleague series and the Cardinals called up their top hitting prospect Stephen Piscotty to start in left field. (He was 2-for-8 in his first two major league starts.)
