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The Houston Astros look to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals tonight as they wrap up their three-game series. The Astros had an offensive outburst last night as they beat their National League Central rivals 11-6, after a 3-2 win Monday.

Carlos Lee cued a five run fifth inning last night with a grand slam homer to ice the game as it made the score 9-1 at the time. Cardinals' starter Todd Wellemeyer was tagged with the loss, getting the hook in the fifth inning. Wandy Rodriquez picked up the win for the Astros in a solid outing giving up just one run over seven innings.

Houston is now making a playoff push as with these two wins they have closed to within 2.0 games of St. Louis for the lead in the National League Central. The Astros are becoming known for a slow start followed by a strong second half. In 2008 Houston went into the All-Star break with a 44-51 record, but finished the season at 86-75, missing a wild card spot by 3 ½ games.

Tonight the Astros will give the ball to their ace, Roy Oswalt. Oswalt was one of the main reasons for the strong second half last year, going 11-2 over his last 15 starts of 2008. Oswalt is looking sharp again this year. The flame thrower has two complete games and is 3-0 in his last four starts. In those three wins he has just allowed one run in each of those starts.

St. Louis will counter with Chris Carpenter. Carpenter has also been solid with an 8-3 record and a 2.26 ERA. In his last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Carpenter went eight shutout innings, allowing seven hits.

I like Houston to complete the sweep tonight and close to one game of the Cardinals. Oswalt will have a strong outing, keeping the St. Louis bats quiet.