The NL's two hottest teams for the month of July meet face to face in St. Louis tonight as the Braves battle the Cardinals. Horacio Ramirez takes on Jeff Weaver in Weaver's Cardinals debut. In July, the Braves are 9-3, 1/2 game ahead of the Cardinals at 9-4. The Braves are winning with offense. They've scored 98 runs in their 12 games (10 or more in each of the last three) while allowing 64. The Cardinals are keeping the opposition barely under five runs a game (61 runs allowed in 13 starts), but they're winning the close ones, going 5-2 in one and two runs games. Watch for Chipper Jones to go for the record of 15 straight games with an extra-base hit.

The hottest team in the majors is the LAnaheim Angels, 11-1 in July. As expected for a team that good, they're delivering on both sides of the ball, scoring 76 runs (6.33 per game) and allowing just 29 (2.4 per game). The team is led by Guerrero and Rivera in this stretch, although pretty much everyone is getting on base. They'll face the Indians and Jake Westbrook. Hafner and Martinez are getting the job done in July, but they need more support from the rest of the regulars.

Enjoy!