Pick on the Total for Cardinals-Pirates on June 4

The St. Louis Cardinals find themselves in unfamiliar territory sitting in last place in the National League Central and will look to make up ground in the division race on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

St. Louis Cardinals (-150, 9) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Cardinals will look to Miles Mikolas to continue his run of good starts — having entered Sunday allowing three runs or fewer in nine straight starts. He has also posted a 1.62 ERA across his last seven starts.

Mikolas gets to face a Pirates offense that is in anything but peak form — coming off of a month of May in which the team had the fewest home runs and worst on-base plus slugging in the National League. The Pirates have scored four runs or fewer in 22 of their last 28 games entering the weekend.

They’ll look for a bounce-back start for Rich Hill, who allowed a combined 11 runs in his previous two starts after posting a respectable 3.80 ERA through his first nine starts of the season.

Hill gets to face a Cardinals lineup that has had a tough time scoring on the road, posting 4.1 runs per game compared to 5.5 runs per game at home.

Entering the weekend, the Cardinals had scored four runs or fewer in seven of their last eight games with the team being heavily reliant on home runs, belting the fourth-most home runs in the league. However, they’ve ranked 19th in batting average during that span.

The Pirates’ bullpen ranks second in the National League in both ERA and home runs allowed per nine innings and will keep Sunday’s series finale a low-scoring affair.

The Play: Cardinals vs. Pirates Under 9