The Cardinals will have Adam Wainwright on the mound against Jeff Locke, but the team will be without MVP candidate Yadier Molina, as he is on the DL with an injury and after the trading deadline passed the teams made some small moves, but nothing major that was rumored about and now they will possibly use the waiver deadline to get deals done and on Wednesday the Pirates hope to keep their strong play going.
The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates are in a fierce battle for the NL Central and after sweeping a double header on Tuesday, it's the Pirates that are in first place in the division and have the best record in baseball and the Cards will try to cut into that on Wednesday night.
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The Pirates have had issues over the past two seasons closing out the year and after having a two-decade long losing record streak, the team appears to be about to break that an their playoff drought with the way they have played this season., Locke has been a strong arm for the Pirates all year and he comes in with a 9-3 record and sub-2.50 ERA this season and now he will try and continue a stretch that has seen him go 8-2 with a 1.70 ERA since April 23 and he has allowed less than two runs or less in eight straight starts and will try to keep that up against the best offense in baseball.
Wainwright has 13 wins on the season and a 2.51 ERA and he has been the rock for the Cardinals as he has 145 strikeouts and an 8.1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Cards know they have a tough division battle ahead and now every game counts as the schedule turns into August. The Pirates have 64 wins and have been struggling on offense and are ranked 22nd in runs, 22nd in the league in batting and 20th in on base percentage and 19th in slugging. The Cardinals are ranked fifth in runs and rank third in both batting average and on base percentage and 12th in slugging percentage.