The Pittsburgh Pirates (70-47) are three games in front of the St. Louis Cardinals (67-50) in the National League Central, and showing the baseball world that this season they are for real. They can continue to prove themselves in another three-game set against the Cards in St. Louis beginning tonight at 8:10 p.m. The game can be live streamed here; the Pirates radio broadcast can be heard on KDKA-FM 93.7 while the Cardinals fans can tune in to KMOX 1120.
Adam Wainwright (13-7, 2.66 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Cardinals in a tone-setting game. The Cards and Pirates have traded blows all season long, but if St. Louis wants to pull the plug on Pittsburgh's wild ride then Wainwright will need to be the man to turn the lights out.
In his only start against the Bucs this season Wainwright went seven innings and gave up four runs in a no-decision. The onus is really on Wainwright to lead the way after the Cards dropped four out of five games in an extended series.
"I know our guys are looking forward to playing them again," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "We're anxious about it. There's a little added excitement with them coming in town and something to prove. We're a better team than we showed in Pittsburgh."
Wainwright will be opposed by Charlie Morton (4-3, 3.88 ERA), who will be trying to lift the Pirates out of their own mini-slump. The NL Central leaders have lost their last three games. "We're going to go in there, it's going to be packed, it's going to be exciting," said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.
On August 1st Morton coughed up five runs in six innings against St. Louis, and in his past five outings against the Redbirds he's 0-5 with a 6.43 ERA.
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