Pirates And Cardinals Eyeing Division
This evening the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals will begin a three-game division series that could decide both the division leaders and a Wild Card spot.
The Pittsburgh Pirates managed to make up some ground against their division rivals and division leading, Milwaukee Brewers this past weekend in a series that appropriately pitted them against the Brewers. They will have a similarly challenging task as they will now need to get some Ws against the team with the best win-loss record in the NL Wild Card race.
The Pirates despite closing the gap a bit still have a few games to go, as they are five games behind the Brewers and still fighting to hold a NL Wild Card Spot.
The Cardinals will not only be looking to hold on to their Wildcard spot, but they could potentially dethrone the Brewers if they can win this series. Currently the Cards are only 1.5 games behind the Brewers.
Two veteran pitchers will go ahead to ahead tonight as John Lackey will pitch for the Cardinals and Francisco Liriano for the Pirates.
Lackey was only recently acquired by by the Cards, as this is his fifth appearance on the mound for the team. Since joining the team Lackey is 3-1, however in his last outing he gave up four runs over six innings. St. Louis still pulled out the victory.
Liriano is looking to break a three-game losing streak tonight. He has not won a game since July but not due to a lack of trying. He has not allowed over two runs in a start since the second half of the season began, until he ran into the Braves in his last outing where he gave up 10 hits and nine runs.Â
The Cards are the favorites to win this one.
