Pittsburgh Pirates are sailing into St. Louis to face the Cardinals at the not-so-hitter-friendly Busch Stadium. This game is promising to be as exciting as watching paint dry. I mean, it's just baseball, no gladiators or dragons in sight. Anyway, let's dig into it.
The Pirates are throwing Jake Woodford on the mound, a man with an ERA of 8.27 this season that makes my golf handicap look good, and as we know, golf and baseball are basically the same sport, right? Meanwhile, St. Louis answers with Sonny Gray whose 3.80 ERA and 11.1 K/9 makes him the favorite in this pitching duel, if it can be called that.
If we look at the player lineup, Pirates are flaunting contributors like Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds, while Nick Gonzales adds some variety with his newly acquired base stealing skills. Yet, their recent performance rosters more loss than wins. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have Paul Goldschmidt, who's been hitting the ball more often than I hit the snooze button, and Lars Nootbaar, living up to his unique name with some decent stats too. Nolan Arenado is there as well, albeit hitting on a lower note, still a force to be reckoned with.
In our crystal ball of past matchups, Cardinals have had the edge more often than not. And if we look at the regular season record, it's a coin toss with Cardinals achieving a perfectly balanced 75-75 while Pirates being just a few tumbles behind with a 71-79 record. Cardinals have been showing consistency in recent games while Pirates have faced a few speed bumps, much like my diet plan.
Considering all these stats—which are just numbers really—we can conclude that...uhm...someone is going to win this baseball game! And my guess would be St. Louis Cardinals walking away with a win, courtesy of their better performing starting pitcher and some solid batsmen in the form of Goldschmidt and Nootbaar. But remember folks, baseball, like life, is unpredictable, and my prediction serves as a crystal ball, not a time machine.
Albert’s Prediction: St. Louis Cardinals by 2