Cardinals Look to Take Second Straight Against Pirates
On Saturday, Major League Baseball takes center stage, with one game featuring a showdown between two National League Central rivals when the St. Louis Cardinals visit the Pittsburgh Pirates. The current line has St. Louis at -114, Pittsburgh at +104 and the over/under run total on 8.
Entering this game, St. Louis on the season is 33-28 overall and 18-12 on the road. The Cardinals are 7-3 in their past 10 games played. Pittsburgh overall on the season is 32-29 and 18-13 at home. In their past 10 games played, the Pirates are 3-7.
St. Louis appears to have turned its season around with 5 wins in its past 6 games. The Cardinals took the opener of the series on Friday night in 12 innings on a pinch-hit double by Adam Wainwright that scored two runs that ignited a rally of six runs.
Matt Carpenter, who won the NL Player of the Week last week, hit a three-run home run Friday and now has hit in seven consecutive games. Brandon Moss has 4 home runs along with 7 RBIs over a four game stretch with multiple hits in each game.
Pittsburgh has now lost three consecutive games. On Friday, Gerrit Cole a starting pitcher hurt his triceps and Francisco Cervelli their starting catcher hurt his hand. Both had to leave the game. Cole left during the third inning, meaning the bullpen pitched 10 innings.
St. Louis will send Carlos Martinez to the mound on Saturday. The Cardinals right-hander is 6-5 with an ERA of 3.76 on the season. Pittsburgh will counter with Francisco Liriano. The Pirates southpaw is 4-5 with an ERA of 5.25 this season.
Martinez won for the second straight outing on Sunday when he allowed 3 runs on 4 hits across six innings and beat San Francisco. He has 22 strikeouts over his past 19 innings pitched. In his career, Martinez is 2-4 with an ERA Of 4.57 against Pittsburgh.
Liriano has not pitched since June 3 when he gave up 7 runs on 10 hits over 3 plus innings. Liriano is 1-4 over his past five outings, but struck out 10 Cardinals on May 6 in a win to increase his lifetime mark against St. Louis to 7-2 with an ERA of 2.41.
Despite squandering a lead in the ninth on Friday, St. Louis is 31-0 when holding the lead entering the ninth inning.
His season Starling Marte the left fielder for Pittsburgh has 11 hits in 30 at bats versus the Cardinals.
Prediction: St. Louis is on a roll now, while Pittsburgh is struggling. Lean toward the Red Birds.
