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If they are to close ground in the National League wild-card race, the Cincinnati Reds must get left-hander Andrew Abbott back on track.

Abbott (8-4, 2.62 ERA) is coming off his worst outing of the season. He allowed seven runs (six earned) on eight hits, including two homers, in four innings of a 10-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks last weekend.

Abbott will look to rebound Saturday night in the middle game of a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals in Cincinnati. The Cardinals won 7-5 in 10 innings Friday night, handing the Reds their seventh loss in their past eight games.

Cincinnati has fallen five games behind the New York Mets in the race for the final National League wild-card slot. The Cardinals are 6 1/2 games back of the Mets.

Abbott blamed unusally poor control for his struggle against the Diamondbacks. He had given up two earned runs or fewer 18 times this season and ranked second in the NL in ERA before suffering that loss.

'I would have gotten out of some of those situations had I made a better pitch in a better location,' Abbott said after his defeat to Arizona.

'Uncharacteristically, just a lot of pitches that were catching the middle, kind of thigh high and up way more than we're used to watching with him,' Reds manager Terry Francona said. 'He threw enough strikes and he had some strikeouts [six], but there were a lot of misses that he's not normally doing.'

Abbott is 1-0 with an 0.82 ERA in two starts against the Cardinals this season and 4-2 with a 3.76 ERA in seven career starts against them.

St. Louis will counter with rookie right-hander Michael McGreevy (5-2, 4.43 ERA), who is 3-0 with a 3.90 ERA in five August starts. He struck seven in six innings while allowing four runs on six hits, including two homers, in his team's 7-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.

'Early on I was fighting for pitch grips,' McGreevy said. 'I felt like I wasn't really feeling my grips well to start the game. Certainly on the homers, both pitches, just terrible spots. I grew up a lefty and I would have definitely loved to hit those pitches.

'But just kind of the feel out of my hand, it slipped; they (didn't) quite catch a seam that I wanted. But I made an adjustment. ... I went heavy with the curveball. That pitch got a lot of swing and misses, set up the four-seamer.'

This will be McGreevy's first career appearance against the Reds.

The Cardinals made two roster moves ahead of this series. With catcher Yohel Pozo landing on the seven-day concussion injured list, Jimmy Crooks got the call from Triple-A Memphis.

With Alec Burleson back on the 10-day IL with a wrist injury, utility player Cesar Prieto arrived from Memphis as well. Both Crooks and Prieto made their major league debuts off the bench Friday night. Crooks played defensively at catcher but did not bat. Prieto went 0-for-1.

Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras has remained in the lineup while appealing his six-game suspension for an on-field tirade on Monday against Pittsburgh, but at some point he likely will have to sit out multiple games.

--Field Level Media