–The Pirates (65-42) have won four straight games since returning to PNC Park, all of which against the Cardinals. Pittsburgh won Monday night 9-2, swept Tuesday’s doubleheader with a walk-off 2-1 in the afternoon game and a 6-0 shutout in the evening, and came back from a 4-2 deficit last night to win 5-4. With the four wins, Pittsburgh now leads St. Louis (62-44) by 2.5 games in the National League’s Central division. The Pirates have outscored the Cardinals 22-7 in the series so far, and the wins gave the Pirates their fourth winning month of the season after going 14-12 in July. Pittsburgh is yet to post a month with a losing record this season.
–Pittsburgh enters tonight’s game with the best record in Major League Baseball, as well as the league’s best earned run average of 3.03. Pirate pitchers also collectively own the league’s lowest batting average against of .226, have allowed the least runs in the league (356), and allowed the least hits (804).
Pitching for the Pirates tonight is Charlie Morton, who historically has seen little success against the Cardinals. Morton is 2-7 against St. Louis in 11 career starts, and has gone 0-4 in his last five starts against the Cardinals. Morton has won his last two starts, but received run support as he allowed 7 runs in 11 and two-thirds innings over two starts in Washington and Miami.
On the other side, Joe Kelly is 0-1 in five career appearances against the Bucs with one start. In 14 career innings, the Pirates have scored 10 runs off Kelly.
–Tonight, Tony Sanchez will make his second career start at catcher as Russell Martin gets an off-day. Manager Clint Hurdle mentioned pre-game the off-day comes as a precaution after Martin had some left knee issues in Miami.
Lineups
Pirates
- Starling Marte LF
- Neil Walker 2B
- Andrew McCutchen CF
- Pedro Alvarez 3B
- Garrett Jones 1B
- Tony Sanchez C
- Jose Tabata RF
- Jordy Mercer SS
- Charlie Morton P
Cardinals
- Matt Carpenter 2B
- Carlos Beltran RF
- Allen Craig 1B
- Matt Holliday LF
- David Freese 3B
- Jon Jay CF
- Tony Cruz C
- Pete Kozma SS
- Joe Kelly P