Cardinals take on the Pirates in first of 3-game series

Pittsburgh Pirates (31-34, fifth in the NL Central) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (31-33, fourth in the NL Central)

St. Louis; Tuesday, 7:45 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Pirates: Paul Skenes (3-0, 3.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 38 strikeouts); Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (4-6, 5.32 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 53 strikeouts)

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Pirates -129, Cardinals +109; over/under is 7 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The St. Louis Cardinals host the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday to open a three-game series.

St. Louis has a 31-33 record overall and a 15-14 record at home. The Cardinals have a 14-7 record in games when they did not allow a home run.

Pittsburgh has a 15-17 record in road games and a 31-34 record overall. The Pirates are 25-3 in games when they out-hit their opponents.

Tuesday's game is the first meeting between these teams this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Nolan Gorman leads St. Louis with 14 home runs while slugging .470. Alec Burleson is 9-for-42 with four home runs and six RBI over the past 10 games.

Connor Joe leads the Pirates with a .263 batting average, and has 14 doubles, a triple, seven home runs, 21 walks and 27 RBI. Nick Gonzales is 14-for-41 with two home runs and nine RBI over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 4-6, .224 batting average, 3.93 ERA, outscored by five runs

Pirates: 6-4, .258 batting average, 3.25 ERA, outscored opponents by 14 runs

INJURIES: Cardinals: Lars Nootbaar: 10-Day IL (oblique), Nick Robertson: 15-Day IL (elbow), Riley O'Brien: 60-Day IL (forearm), Willson Contreras: 10-Day IL (arm), Giovanny Gallegos: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Tommy Edman: 60-Day IL (wrist), Steven Matz: 15-Day IL (back), Drew Rom: 60-Day IL (biceps), Keynan Middleton: 15-Day IL (forearm)

Pirates: Ryan Borucki: 60-Day IL (tricep), Quinn Priester: 15-Day IL (undisclosed), Ji-Hwan Bae: 10-Day IL (undisclosed), Marco Gonzales: 60-Day IL (forearm), Alika Williams: 10-Day IL (wrist), Martin Perez: 15-Day IL (groin), Joey Bart: 10-Day IL (thumb), Dauri Moreta: 60-Day IL (elbow), Endy Rodriguez: 60-Day IL (elbow), Johan Oviedo: 60-Day IL (elbow)

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.