The St. Louis Cardinals (71-40) will host the Pittsburgh Pirates (65-44) on Tuesday night at 8:15 p.m. ET at Busch Stadium. This crucial series between the National League's top clubs can drastically shift the state of the NL Central.
St. Louis is the best club in the MLB even after suffering countless significant injuries to Adam Wainwright, Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, Jordan Walden, Jon Jay and others. Tonight they'll send out starter Carlos Martinez (11-4, 2.57 ERA), who is looking to get his first win since July 25.
The right-hander has been asserting his dominance in just his third MLB season. Martinez originally started with the club in the bullpen, but he's made 20 starts this season (he made eight combined in 2013 and 2014) and has been an excellent addition to the league's best rotation (2.77 ERA).
He'll have a tough task against the Pirates tonight. Martinez faced them back in May and was rocked in a losing effort, surrendering seven earned runs on seven hits and four walks in just 5 1/3 innings. But he rebounded against the division rival in July and tossed 7 1/3 scoreless innings en route to a 4-1 victory.
In 12 career games (three starts) against the Pirates, the 23-year-old is 1-2 with a 4.66 ERA, 1.41 WHIP and 30 strikeouts in 29 innings of work.
The Cardinals have won seven of their last 10 and outfielder Randal Grichuk has been providing great run production (.294 with five runs scored, three home runs and seven RBIs in eight games this month) over that span.
Pittsburgh will send left-hander Jeff Locke (6-6, 4.31 ERA) to face Martinez. The Buccos are fresh off a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers and scored 23 runs in those contests thanks to the bats of Andrew McCutchen and Jung-ho Kang.
Locke, 27, got off to a poor start this season, but has settled down since the beginning of June. Since then, the left-hander is 3-3 with a 3.41 ERA in 11 starts. He faced St. Louis twice this season as well, but was unable to earn the win in either of his starts. Back in May he held the Cards to three earned runs on five hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings (the Pirates won 4-3), but his defense did not help him in the outing last month. Locke surrendered four runs (one earned) on five hits and three walks in five innings and was handed the loss.
He's 2-3 with a 3.55 ERA and 1.45 WHIP in seven career starts against the Cardinals.
The Pirates have also won seven of their last 10 and are currently in sole possession of the first NL wild-card spot. They lead the Chicago Cubs by 3.5 games and the San Francisco Giants by seven games in the wild-card race, but they have their sights set on catching the Cardinals and winning the NL Central.
This is an important series for both clubs because it could give the Cardinals more breathing room atop the division or allow Pittsburgh to catch up with less than two months remaining in the season.
The two clubs will face each other six more times in September, but this three-game set is just as momentous as any other.
Check out the live stream for tonight's game here as well as the live radio broadcast here (STL) or here (PIT).
