Cardinals at Pirates
The St. Louis Cardinals continue pursuit of their first National League Central title since 2015 when they begin a six-game road trip with the first of three against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday. First-place St. Louis leads the Chicago Cubs by 2 1/2 games with Thursday's 10-0 rout of San Francisco its sixth victory in seven contests and 21st in 27, prompting Cardinals manager Mike Shildt to tell reporters: "We're just keeping the gas down."
St. Louis plays 13 of its final 22 games on the road but nine are against teams that are out of playoff contention, including three at Colorado next week. The Cardinals do not have a player hitting higher than .287 (Kolten Wong), but boast the fifth-best ERA in baseball at 3.86 and are No. 2 among relievers at 3.64. Pittsburgh rode a four-game winning streak into its home series with Miami, which entered the set with a 15-game road slide, but the Pirates dropped two of three capped by Thursday's 10-7 loss. St. Louis' Miles Mikolas on Friday makes his sixth start of the season against Pittsburgh and opposes Joe Musgrove, who is 0-4 with a 10.00 ERA in four turns versus the Cardinals in 2019.
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, FS Midwest (St. Louis), AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh
PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Miles Mikolas (8-13, 4.32 ERA) vs. Pirates RH Joe Musgrove (9-12, 4.67)
Mikolas received a no-decision after allowing three runs and four hits with five strikeouts in six innings of St. Louis' 4-3 victory over Cincinnati on Sunday. The 31-year-old Floridian has recorded two straight quality starts after a string of three outings without one. Pittsburgh rookie Bryan Reynolds is 6-for-11 with three doubles while Josh Bell has two home runs in 26 at-bats against Mikolas, who is 4-3 with a 3.15 ERA in 12 games (10 starts) against the Pirates - 2-1, 3.66 in five turns this season.
Musgrove allowed three runs and eight hits with five strikeouts in six innings of an 11-4 victory at Colorado on Saturday. The 26-year-old California native has a 1.24 WHIP with 136 strikeouts and 35 walks in 154 1/3 innings this season. St. Louis' Dexter Fowler is 6-for-13 with a home run, six RBIs, three walks and a double while Paul Goldschmidt is 6-for-12 with a home run, three RBIs and six walks versus Musgrove, who was 1-2 with a 4.26 ERA in three starts against the Cardinals entering the season.
WALK-OFFS
1. St. Louis C Yadier Molina owns a 12-game hitting streak during which he is 20-for-46. ... Molina has 1,944 hits and is tied with Ozzie Smith for seventh in club history.
2. Reynolds went 2-for-5 on Thursday - becoming the third Pirate in history to homer from both sides of the plate - to raise his average to .333 as he tries to catch Washington's Anthony Rendon (.338) and become the first rookie in the modern era to win an NL batting title.
3. Cardinals SS Paul DeJong has a career-high 26 home runs after going deep Thursday for the second straight game.