Red-hot Bryce Harper leads Phillies against slumping Cardinals

Bryce Harper will try to continue his torrid hitting on Friday night when the Philadelphia Phillies host the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of their three-game series.

Harper has hit a home run in three consecutive contests and is 12-for-26 with five home runs, nine RBIs and nine runs in his last seven games.

The two-time National League MVP belted a three-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the ninth inning on Wednesday. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they fell for the sixth time in 10 games and saw their lead atop the wild-card chase reduced with an 8-6 setback in 10 innings to the San Francisco Giants.

"I think, on a personal level, it doesn't really matter where we're at right now," Harper said, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We've got to keep going. We've got to stay there. Thirty-five (games) to go. Got to keep rolling. There are teams trying to chase us down. And it's very competitive in this wild card right now. There's a lot of teams that everybody thought were going to sell, but they didn't, and look at where they're at now."

Kyle Schwarber homered for the second time in three games on Wednesday and Trea Turner went deep to extend his hitting streak to five games (7-for-24, three homers, five RBIs and five runs).

Harper has fared well versus Cardinals scheduled starter Miles Mikolas (6-9, 4.55 ERA), going 5-for-12 with two solo homers. They last faced each other in 2019.

Mikolas, 35, fell to 0-4 in his last six starts on Saturday after allowing seven runs on as many hits -- including two homers -- in 4 2/3 innings of a 13-2 setback to the New York Mets.

The right-hander has permitted 22 runs (21 earned) on 37 hits in 30 2/3 innings during his last six games.

Mikolas is 2-1 with a 3.16 ERA in five career appearances (four starts) versus the Phillies.

Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sanchez (1-3, 3.36) is scheduled to pitch Friday.

Sanchez, 26, followed his lone win this season on Aug. 11 with a strong performance Saturday. He yielded three runs (two earned) and struck out five without walking a batter over six innings in a no-decision against the Washington Nationals.

Sanchez did not record a decision in his lone encounter of his career versus St. Louis. He came on in relief and allowed two runs on two hits in three innings.

The Cardinals dropped six of seven games before posting a 6-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. Richie Palacios recorded his first three-hit performance and drove in a pair of runs for St. Louis.

"He's under control," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "Takes really nice swings. The ball has been coming off his bat well. Knows the strike zone. Makes a lot of contact. It's a good combination of skills."

Paul Goldschmidt had two hits and scored twice on Wednesday. He is 6-for-14 with a homer, four RBIs and five runs in his last four games.