Pirates at Cardinals
It was only a little over two weeks ago that the Pittsburgh Pirates were a season-high nine games over .500 and leading the National League Central, but the losses began to pile up once the consistently good pitching performances came to a halt. With two strong efforts from their rotation over the last three games, the Pirates hope to continue rediscovering their previous form when they visit St. Louis on Saturday for the third of four contests against the Cardinals.
Pittsburgh outscored the opposition 57-29 while winning eight of nine from May 6-17 to take a one-half game lead atop its division before promptly giving up 59 runs while dropping nine of its next 11 to fall as far as 6 1/2 games off the pace. The Pirates watched Joe Musgrove toss seven strong innings in Wednesday's 2-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs and Jameson Taillon did him one better Friday, holding the Cardinals to three hits across eight scoreless frames in a 4-0 triumph to even the series. St. Louis has been unable to sustain much success since a five-game winning streak to begin May, failing to win more than two games in a row while going 10-13 overall. Despite Friday's result, the Cardinals have won five of their last six and 12 of their last 15 at home against Pittsburgh.
TV: 2:15 p.m. ET, MLB Network, AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, FS Midwest (St. Louis)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Pirates RH Chad Kuhl (4-3, 3.94 ERA) vs. Cardinals RH Luke Weaver (3-5, 4.63)
Kuhl turned in his third quality start in the last four outings but remained winless over that span Monday versus the Chicago, taking the loss despite permitting one run on four hits and four walks in six frames to the Cubs. The 25-year-old Delaware native has given up one run or fewer in three of his last five turns overall but has only one win to show for it. Matt Carpenter is 3-for-10 with a pair of walks versus Kuhl, who is 1-2 with a 4.03 ERA in six starts against St. Louis.
Following a three-game stretch in which he allowed four runs across 19 innings, Weaver suffered his third straight loss after he was tagged for four runs in four frames at Milwaukee on Monday. The outing may be enough to bump the Florida State product from the rotation once Carlos Martinez returns from the disabled list - likely early next week. Weaver took the loss April 29 at Pittsburgh, yielding four runs over 5 1/3 innings to fall to 1-1 with a 3.18 ERA in four appearances (three starts) versus the Pirates.
WALK-OFFS
1. Pirates OF Corey Dickerson is 11-for-23 in his last six games at Busch Stadium.
2. Carpenter went 0-for-4 on Friday, ending a seven-game hitting streak during which he had four two-hit efforts.
3. Pittsburgh has tallied eight of its 18 triples this season over the last 10 contests.