Cardinals vs Pirates: Free MLB Prediction by King Sports Picks
Free MLB prediction by Peter Trell of King Sports Picks
St. Louis Cardinals (34–28) vs Pittsburgh Pirates (32–30)
Probables: Mike Leake (4–4, 4.22 ERA) vs Jonothan Niese (6–2, 3.93 ERA)
St. Louis is in the midst of a four game win streak and they hope to bring the brooms out against the Pittsburgh Pirates today at 5pm EST. The Cardinals took games 1 and 2 and scored a total of 14 runs so far in this series and have scored at least 5 runs in 6 of the last 7 games. When the offense is clicking for St. Louis it’s always a positive sign as they have won 10 of their last 12 games when scoring more than 3 runs. The Pirates look to Jonothan Niese to silence the Cardinal bats.
Jonothan Niese picked up a win in his last outing vs his former team New York Mets. Niese picked up the win after pitching 7 scoreless innings on just 4 hits and 2 strikeouts. All time, Niese is 4–3 with a 3.45 ERA vs the St. Louis Cardinals. Niese will hope his offense can help light up the scoreboard and one of the one player that has contributed offensively is Starling Marte. Marte is batting .329 with 76 hits, 18 doubles and 22 RBI’s. Pittsburgh ranks 2nd in the MLB with a .273 team batting average but they lack the power to produce runs on a consistent basis.
Mike Leake gets the nod for the Cardinals tonight. After a rough start to the season, Leake is (4–1) with a ND over his last six starts. Leake was the beneficiary of the Cardinal offense scoring at least 5 runs in each of these four wins. Leake has pitched well vs the Pirates in his career going (8–4) with a 3.16 ERA and 101 strikeouts.
St. Louis is playing well and are 5–1 vs the number in their last 6 games and 5–2 in Leake’s last 7 starts. Pittsburgh is 14–6 their last 20 Sunday games. Both teams need to start playing consistent baseball in order to keep a respectable distance behind the Cubs in the NL Central. Chicago is running away with the Central and unless Pittsburgh can string some wins together vs their division opponents they may not make another post season appearance in 2016.
My take: The Cardinals are heating up and have been swinging the bats very well. The Pirates haven’t been swept in a month since playing the Cubs and the Pirates need to get back on track. Pittsburgh wins this game behind Niese and prevents the sweep at home.
Peter Trell’s Prediction: Pittsburgh wins 4–3
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