St. Louis @ Pittsburgh preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 6, 2013 ) St. Louis 3, Pittsburgh 5

Having already put an end to a 21-year postseason drought, the Pittsburgh Pirates are on the brink of winning their first playoff series in 34 years. The Pirates will look for the clincher when they host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Monday afternoon. Pittsburgh took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series with a dramatic 5-3 victory in Sunday's Game 3, improving to 8-3 at home this season against the Cardinals.

St. Louis is pinning its hopes on 22-year-old rookie right-hander Michael Wacha to keep its season alive and force a winner-take-all Game 5 in St. Louis on Wednesday. The Pirates will counter with Charlie Morton, who has lost six consecutive decisions to the Cardinals and has not beaten them since April 4, 2011. Carlos Beltran has two homers and six RBIs in the series for St. Louis while Pedro Alvarez has two blasts and four RBIs for Pittsburgh.

TV: 3:07 p.m. ET, TBS

PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Michael Wacha (4-1, 2.78 ERA) vs. Pirates RH Charlie Morton (7-4, 3.26)

Wacha forced his way into the playoff rotation with a stellar final month, not allowing a run in three of five outings in September and coming within one out of a no-hitter in his last start. He allowed only an infield single with out outs in the ninth and struck out a season-high nine to beat Washington on Sept. 24. Wacha also pitched seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball versus the Pirates on Sept. 8.

Morton has never had much success against the Cardinals and that continued this season with an 0-2 record, 7.90 ERA and .397 batting average against in three starts. That included a disastrous outing against Wacha last month in which he allowed five runs in a season-low 1 2/3 innings before leaving with a foot injury. Morton was a much better pitcher at home, logging a 2-2 record and 2.85 ERA in nine starts.

WALK-OFFS

1. Pittsburgh trade-deadline acquisition Marlon Byrd has five RBIs in four postseason games, including the wild-card win over Cincinnati.

2. CF Jon Jay (8-for-16), C Yadier Molina (8-for-19) and Beltran (6-for-15) are all batting .400 or better versus Morton.

3. Beltran hit his 16th postseason homer Sunday, surpassing Babe Ruth for eighth place on the career list.

PREDICTION: Cardinals 6, Pirates 3