The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds engage in a divisional battle

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The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds engage in a divisional battle

The St. Louis Cardinals were the only serious challengers to the Cincinnati Reds coming out of last season’s All-Star break, but after going back and forth for the next month, the Reds pulled away.

If Cincinnati wants to repeat as NL Central champion, it’ll find a few more obstacles in its way this year.

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The Reds have three teams in front of them, including a Cardinals club that hopes to still be jockeying for the top spot after a nine-game road trip that begins with Friday night’s visit to Great American Ball Park.

Cincinnati (45-47) led the division by one game at last year’s break. The race with St. Louis (49-43) remained tight until mid-August, when the Reds pulled away to win their first Central crown since 1995.

The Brewers, Cardinals and surprising Pirates are all at least three games up on the Reds this season, and Cincinnati didn’t exactly go into the break with much confidence. The Reds lost two of three in St. Louis - they were nearly swept after blowing an eight-run lead in the finale before hanging on in 13 innings - then dropped three of four by a run apiece in Milwaukee, the last two of which involved closer Francisco Cordero blowing ninth-inning leads.

“We’re a pretty good team like we were last year, and we (played well) early this season,” Cordero told the Reds’ official website. “I know for sure that we are a better team than we are playing (like) now. We will play better and we will win more games.”

The Cardinals hope to say the same after a first half that saw them survive 15 trips to the disabled list, including stints by Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday.

They’ve hung in the race largely thanks to the contributions of free agent signing Lance Berkman, who leads the NL with 24 homers and is among the league’s top five in RBIs (63) and on-base percentage (.404).

Berkman probably won’t mind the Cardinals playing nine straight on the road. He’s played 41 games both in and away from St. Louis, but 18 of his homers have come outside of Busch Stadium.

He’s also homered 22 times in his career at Great American Ball Park - easily his most in any venue he hasn’t called home.

Berkman has taken Reds starter Johnny Cueto (5-3, 1.96 ERA) deep twice in 20 at-bats, two more homers than Pujols (4 for 20) has against the righty. Jon Jay is 6 for 11 with two home runs versus Cueto.

Cueto would be among the majors’ ERA leaders if he had enough starts to qualify, which he should with two more qualify outings. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his 12 starts, though he matched that high-water mark and surrendered a season-high four walks in Saturday’s 8-4, 10-inning win at Milwaukee.

The right-hander is 1-1 with a 0.57 ERA in two starts against St. Louis this season.

Jake Westbrook (7-4, 5.34) counters for the Cardinals, and the Reds should be happy to see him. The right-hander allowed eight hits - three homers - and seven runs over 4 1-3 innings before leaving the July 6 series finale versus Cincinnati.

The Reds get a much needed win to start off the second half of the season.

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