St. Louis @ Pittsburgh preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 6, 2016 ) St. Louis 9, Pittsburgh 7

The St. Louis Cardinals are beating away the competition as they inch closer to a National League wild card spot. The Cardinals, who own the best road record in baseball, will try to finish off a three-game sweep at the fading Pittsburgh Pirates and wrap up a 6-3 road trip in Wednesday's series finale.

St. Louis is in a three-way fight with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets for two NL wild card spots and did itself a favor with a dramatic, series-clinching win over the Pirates on Tuesday. Matt Carpenter, Randal Grichuk and Jhonny Peralta each homered with two outs in the ninth inning to spark the Cardinals to a 9-7 victory and keep them one game ahead of the Mets for the second wild card, a half-game behind the leading Giants. The crushing loss was the latest in a string of eight in a row for the Pirates, who have played their way out of contention while watching the pitching staff surrender an average of seven runs in the slide. Pittsburgh, which closes the regular season with its final 10 games against the Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis, will turn to rookie Jameson Taillon in search of a spark on Wednesday.

TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), ROOT (Pittsburgh)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Mike Leake (9-9, 4.56 ERA) vs. Pirates RH Jameson Taillon (3-4, 3.25)

Leake has been out over two weeks due to a bout with shingles and is hoping to pick up right where he left off. The Arizona State product struck out eight and scattered seven hits across seven scoreless innings to earn a win at Philadelphia on Aug. 21. Leake was reached for five runs in six innings to suffer a loss against Pittsburgh on July 5 and is 9-5 with a 3.28 ERA in 27 career starts against the division rivals.

Taillon came out on the wrong end of a 1-0 final score against Milwaukee on Friday, when he allowed one run and three hits in six innings. The former No. 2 overall draft pick recorded a quality start in nine of his last 10 outings but owns only two wins in that span. Taillon is seeing St. Louis for the first time in his career and is 1-2 with a 2.70 ERA in eight home starts.

WALK-OFFS

1. Carpenter's blast on Tuesday was the Cardinals' 15th of the season by a pinch hitter, setting a major league record.

2. Pirates LHP Tony Watson suffered a blown save in each of his last two chances.

3. St. Louis has homered in 25 straight games, tying the longest streak in NL history.

PREDICTION: Pirates 5, Cardinals 4