(My Sportsbook) - Playing at home has been a big reason for the early success of the St. Louis Cardinals, who will open a quick two-game series tonight versus the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium.

St. Louis will also welcome the Pittsburgh Pirates to town for two games and is 10-3 as the host this season. The Cardinals are coming off a rain-shortened seven-game road trip and went 4-2 on the trek, suffering a 6-1 loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday. Starting pitcher Joel Pineiro was trying to become the NL's first five-game winner, but allowed four runs -- one earned -- on seven hits in seven innings to suffer the loss.

Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols was given the day off after hitting two homers in the last two games, while Colby Rasmus provided the offense with his first career home run for St. Louis, which entered the game on a three-game winning streak. Sunday's series finale at Nationals Park was postponed because of rain

Kyle Lohse is aiming for a 4-0 start and will take the hill Monday for the Cardinals. Lohse is 3-0 with a solid 1.97 earned run average in five trips to the mound this season, and is coming off a no-decision against Atlanta on April 28. In the 2-1 loss to the Braves, Lohse hurled six shutout innings of four-hit ball before the bullpen blew it.

The right-hander, who had won three of his first four starts, will try to rebound against his former Philly mates tonight at Busch. Lohse went 3-0 in 13 games (11 starts) with the Phillies in parts of 2007, and is 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA in five career appearances against them.

Philadelphia is also coming off a postponed affair, as its three-game series versus the NL East-rival New York Mets was cut short Sunday due to rain. After the Mets opened the series with a 7-4 victory on Friday, the Phillies came out the next day and won by a 6-5 score in 10 innings on a bases-loaded walk by New York reliever Sean Green.

Raul Ibanez homered and ended with a pair of RBI, while Shane Victorino had two hits and scored twice to help Philadelphia to its sixth win in eight games. Reliever Jack Taschner picked up his first victory as a Phillie after throwing a scoreless top of the 10th. Starter Jamie Moyer was reached for five runs over 5 2/3 innings.

The defending champion Phillies will send Joe Blanton to the mound Monday night and he's still in search of his first win of the season. Blanton last took the hill on April 27 versus Washington and did not factor in the outcome of a 13-11 win after giving up six runs and eight hits in just 4 1/3 innings. Blanton, who has given up at least three runs in every start this season, is 0-2 with an 8.41 ERA in four outings this season.

Opponents are hitting .371 off of the right-hander, whose only career appearance against St. Louis came on August 8 last season. Blanton tossed seven innings of one-run ball that day and fanned five batters in Philadelphia's 2-1 victory at Busch Stadium.

The Phillies won five of nine meetings with St. Louis a year ago, while both teams split the six matchups in Missouri. Philadelphia has won four of the last five encounters between the teams.