Cardinals vs. Pirates Pick
The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates meet Sunday night in the MLB Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa. Game time is 7PM EST.
Oddsmakers at sports book Bovada.lv have made the Cardinals and Pirates both a -110 bet on the moneyline, putting the game as a pick’em. The over-under is 9.5.
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Mike Leake (7-11, 3.88 ERA) will start for St. Louis, while the Pirates counter with Ivan Nova (10-10, 3.77). Leake carries a WHIP of 1.32 and is coming off two bad starts in a row, allowing five runs (four earned) in five innings during an 8-5 win versus Kansas City on August 9. He followed that up by surrendering eight earned runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings in a 10-4 loss at Boston. Nova is a groundball pitcher who has regressed over the last two months, seeing his ERA climb by almost a full run. He has a 1.21 WHIP and has only struck out 98 batters in 155 innings. He was strong in his last start at Milwaukee, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits with four strikeouts and three walks in a 3-1 loss.
The Cardinals come in with a 63-60 record, while the Pirates are 59-64. The previous three game in the series were played in Pittsburgh, with St. Louis winning the first two games 11-7 and 11-10. The Pirates rebounded to win Saturday by a count of 6-4.
In Saturday’s game, Adam Frazier and Starling Marte both homered and had three hits to lead the Pittsburgh offense. Sean Rodriguez and John Jaso both had two hits. Chad Kuhl allowed one run over five innings to earn the win. Paul DeJong and Jose Martinez hit home runs for the Cardinals. Michael Wacha took the loss as he gave up five earned runs in four innings.
The game will be played at the renovated BB&T Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field. All tickets are going to Little Leaguers, making it a fun event for Major League Baseball. The dimensions are 323 feet to left field, 331 to right field and 408 to center field. It will be an interesting change in dynamics for these two teams and hitters often take longer to adjust to new sight lines. Leake and Nova are reliable pitchers, even if they haven’t been at the top of their game lately. So the under is in play here. But Nova has been better lately and more consistent. Plus the Pirates will essentially be the home team.
MLB DAILY PREDICTION: PIRATES -110