Today at 1:45 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Pirates (71-67) and St. Louis Cardinals (75-63) take the field at Busch Stadium in St. Louis for the third and final contest of a three-game set. The game can be live streamed for free here. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the action on KDKA 93.7 while St. Louis fans can do the same on KMOX 1120.
Pittsburgh continues the opening series of a 10-game road trip while St. Louis closes out a seven-game homestand it is 5-1 on thus far. The Cardinals have won four straight games and are looking for a sweep of the Pirates after winning 5-4 on Monday and earning a 6-4 victory on Tuesday.
St. Louis enters play in in first place in the National League Central with a two-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers while Pittsburgh is four games behind the Cards and in third place in the division while they trail the Brewers by two games in the NL wild-card hunt. The Atlanta Braves are also in front of them.
Edinson Volquez (11-7, 3.45 ERA) takes the mound for the Pirates while the Cardinals respond with Shelby Miller, who is 8-9 with a 4.19 ERA this season.
Mike Matheny is hoping to guide St. Louis to its third playoff berth in three years under his direction, but he isn't looking too far ahead.
"We have a long way to go," Matheny told MLB.com. "They've had a good start and they've been going strong since the beginning. We're just hoping that we can put together a good long string here and not look any further than each individual game."
In this individual game, the Cardinals will face Volquez, who carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning last time out and gave up just one run in 7.2 frames while striking out six.
"I was more concentrated on what I was doing," Volquez said afterward via MLB.com. "I was able to get to that tonight and got pitches in their strike zone."
Volquez will face a St. Louis lineup that is flanked by first baseman Matt Adams, who leads the team with a .291 batting average and has 13 homers and 57 RBI. Outfielder Matt Holliday paces the Cards in RBI (81) while shortstop Jhonny Peralta is first in long balls (18).
Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter ranks second in the NL in walks (80) and third in runs (89).
Pittsburgh counters with a lineup that has been paced by outfielders Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen.
Harrison leads the NL with a .313 batting average and has 13 homers and 46 RBI while McCutchen is second in the NL in on-base percentage (.399), third in slugging percentage (.535) and OPS (.933) and fourth in batting average (.305) while leading the Pirates with 21 homers and 72 RBI.
The postseason races heat up as two NL Central rivals clash this afternoon at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
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