Pittsburgh takes on St. Louis following Brault's solid outing

St. Louis Cardinals (22-24, third in the NL Central) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (15-34, fifth in the NL Central)

Pittsburgh; Friday, 4:05 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: St. Louis: Carlos Martinez (0-2, 10.32 ERA) Pittsburgh: Trevor Williams (1-7, 6.35 ERA)

LINE: Cardinals favored by 1 1/2 runs; over/under is 8 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: Pittsburgh heads into the matchup after a dominant performance by Steven Brault. Brault pitched nine innings, surrendering one run on two hits with eight strikeouts against St. Louis.

The Pirates are 13-19 against NL Central teams. Pittsburgh has slugged .347, last in the league. Colin Moran leads the club with a .482 slugging percentage, including 16 extra-base hits and eight home runs.

The Cardinals are 15-16 in division games. St. Louis has a team on-base percentage of .328, led by Paul Goldschmidt with a mark of .429.

TOP PERFORMERS: Josh Bell leads the Pirates with 40 hits and has 19 RBIs.

Goldschmidt leads the Cardinals with 15 extra base hits and is batting .302.

INJURIES: Pirates: Jameson Taillon: (elbow), Keone Kela: (forearm), Clay Holmes: (right forearm), Michael Feliz: (right forearm), Kyle Crick: (lat strain), Nick Burdi: (right elbow), Tyler Bashlor: (back), Chris Archer: (neck), Cole Tucker: (concussion), Kevin Kramer: (hip), Anthony Alford: (elbow), Phillip Evans: (broken jaw/concussion), Luke Maile: (finger).

Cardinals: Ricardo Sanchez: (elbow), Miles Mikolas: (forearm), Dakota Hudson: (elbow), John Gant: (groin), Giovanny Gallegos: (groin), John Brebbia: (elbow), Dexter Fowler: (stomach), Austin Dean: (right elbow).

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