Pittsburgh Pirates (25-24, fifth in the NL Central) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (28-20, second in the NL Central)

St. Louis; Thursday, 1:15 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Pirates: Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 3.09 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 56 strikeouts); Cardinals: Dustin May (3-4, 4.81 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 35 strikeouts)

LINE: Pirates -127, Cardinals +107; over/under is 7 1/2 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The Pittsburgh Pirates play the St. Louis Cardinals after Konnor Griffin’s four-hit game on Wednesday.

St. Louis has gone 13-12 at home and 28-20 overall. The Cardinals have hit 55 total home runs to rank seventh in the NL.

Pittsburgh has a 12-11 record on the road and a 25-24 record overall. The Pirates have a 16-9 record in games when they scored five or more runs.

The matchup Thursday is the seventh time these teams match up this season. The Cardinals hold a 5-1 advantage in the season series.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jordan Walker has 10 doubles and 13 home runs while hitting .296 for the Cardinals. JJ Wetherholt is 11 for 40 with two home runs over the past 10 games.

Oneil Cruz has nine doubles and 10 home runs for the Pirates. Brandon Lowe is 9 for 42 with three doubles, a triple and two home runs over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 5-5, .243 batting average, 3.75 ERA, outscored by seven runs

Pirates: 4-6, .280 batting average, 4.45 ERA, even run differential

INJURIES: Cardinals: Ramon Urias: 10-Day IL (elbow), Lars Nootbaar: 60-Day IL (heels)

Pirates: Ryan O’Hearn: 10-Day IL (quadricep), Joey Bart: 10-Day IL (foot infection), Chris Devenski: 15-Day IL (illness), Jared Jones: 60-Day IL (elbow)

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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