Cardinals try to avoid series sweep against the Astros

St. Louis Cardinals (28-31, third in the NL Central) vs. Houston Astros (28-34, third in the AL West)

Houston; Wednesday, 2:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (3-6, 5.54 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 50 strikeouts); Astros: Ronel Blanco (5-1, 2.44 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 57 strikeouts)

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Astros -159, Cardinals +134; over/under is 9 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals play the last game of a three-game series. The Astros will sweep the series with a victory.

Houston has a 28-34 record overall and a 17-17 record in home games. The Astros have a 15-7 record in games when they did not give up a home run.

St. Louis has a 15-19 record on the road and a 28-31 record overall. Cardinals pitchers have a collective 4.14 ERA, which ranks 10th in the NL.

The teams play Wednesday for the third time this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Kyle Tucker has 19 home runs, 46 walks and 40 RBI while hitting .266 for the Astros. Yordan Alvarez is 15-for-39 with two doubles, three home runs and six RBI over the last 10 games.

Brendan Donovan has 14 doubles, a triple and four home runs for the Cardinals. Masyn Winn is 13-for-36 with two doubles, a home run and seven RBI over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Astros: 5-5, .237 batting average, 3.06 ERA, outscored opponents by six runs

Cardinals: 5-5, .249 batting average, 3.56 ERA, outscored by four runs

INJURIES: Astros: Alex Bregman: day-to-day (hand), Spencer Arrighetti: day-to-day (calf), Kyle Tucker: day-to-day (shin), Cristian Javier: 15-Day IL (forearm), Oliver Ortega: 60-Day IL (elbow), Bennett Sousa: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Penn Murfee: 60-Day IL (elbow), Luis Garcia: 60-Day IL (elbow), Lance McCullers Jr.: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jose Urquidy: 15-Day IL (forearm), Kendall Graveman: 60-Day IL (elbow)

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)

___

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