Cardinals, Nationals battle in possible playoff preview

The Saint Louis Cardinals will be looking to rebound from their previous series loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates and end this current ten-game road trip as they battle it out against the National League East's leading Washington Nationals for four games starting tonight in the nation's capital in what could be a possible playoff series preview.

The Nationals (78-51) are currently ahead of the Atlanta Braves by five games for the division title in the East while the Cardinals (71-59) are currently in the final wild card spot in the National League as both the Pittsburgh Pirates (1 GB) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (1.5 GB) are right on their tails.

Tonight's game will be the first of seven meetings between the two teams in the final month as this weekend they will play four in DC--and then meet again for three more in St. Louis at Busch Stadium on the final weekend of the regular season. Last season the two ball clubs met six times with the Nationals coming out on top in four of the six overall.

The defending world-champion Cardinals are 3-3 entering the final stop on there ten game road trip; and are in need of some much-needed wins. Every game from here on out will continue to build up to be bigger and bigger as the Wild Card spot could very well come down to the final day of the season--but the same could be said for the Nationals as well.

Washington hasn't made a postseason appearance since 1981 when they were formerly known as the Montreal Expos--and with still over thirty games remaining, while five games is a decent lead--we learned last season that no lead is safe, and the team that is trailing them for the division crown (the Braves), is the one team that knows all to well about that.

Here is a preview of this weekend's four game series between two of the best teams that the National League has to offer:

Game 1-Thursday, August 30th: 6:05pm Central Time: FOX Sports Midwest/MLB Network
(STL) Jaime Garcia (3-5, 4.15 ERA) against (WSH) Edwin Jackson (7-9, 3.72 ERA)

Game 2-Friday, August 31st: 6:05pm Central Time: FOX Sports Midwest
(STL) Adam Wainwright (13-10, 3.63 ERA) versus (WSH) Gio Gonzalez (16-7, 3.28 ERA)

Game 3-Saturday, September 1st: 3:05pm Central Time: FOX Regionally
(STL) Kyle Lohse (14-2, 2.64 ERA) versus (WSH) Jordan Zimmerman (9-8, 2.63 ERA)

Game 4-Sunday, September 2nd: 12:35pm Central Time: FOX Sports Midwest
(STL) Jake Westbrook (13-10, 3.94 ERA) versus (WSH) Stephen Strasburg (15-6, 3.05 ERA)