Pittsburgh Pirates v St. Louis Cardinals, Game 5: Starters, Game and TV Info

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

No one should be surprised the NLDS between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals has reached a Game 5. Simply look at the season series in which the Pirates won, ten game to nine. After four games into this NLDS match-up, the Cardinals have scored 15 runs while the Pirates have scored 14.

Some interesting notes heading into tonight’s NL Central fight.

Pittsburgh
– Pedro Alvarez has 3 of the 4 Pirates homers for the series and he’s hitting .385 thus far. The other Pirates homer was off the bat of Starling Marte. That is Marte’s only hit in the series.
– NL MVP candidate Andrew McCutchen is batting .357 for the NLDS, but he has yet to drive in a run or hit a home run.
– Russell Martin may be only 2-for-10 (.200), but he’s made the most of those two hits. Both are run-scoring singles. He also has a pair of sacrifice flies to round out his RBI total of four.

St. Louis
– No player that has started the four previous games is batting over. 300. Considering the Cards owned the NL’s top offense for the regular season, this comes as a surprise.
– Matt Carpenter, also an NL MVP candidate, is a meager 1-for-15 (.067) with six strikeouts in the series.
– Of little surprise is that Carlos Beltran has more RBI than any other player in this series with six.

Game Info:

Date: Wednesday, October 9th
Start Time: 8:00 PM EST
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Venue: Busch Stadium III
TV Info.: TBS
Live Stream:MLB.tv or the MLB at Bat 12 App.

Starting Pitchers:

Pirates manager Clint Hurdle opened a few eyes when he announced that Gerrit Cole was getting the start. Some had felt that Game 1 starter Francisco Liriano. The home/away splits for Liriano are now widely publicized. Plus, Cole did hold the Redbirds in check in Game 2, which was at Busch. Liriano might be in the wings in case Cole runs into the Cardinals bats. If Hurdle doesn’t have to go to his lefty, then he’s got for Game 1 of the NLCS…provided the Buccos pull off the win tonight.

Adam Wainwright silenced the Pirates bats in the series opener. In last year’s Game 5 against the Washington Nationals, Wainwright wasn’t exactly sharp. The Nats chased him after only 2.1 innings and they scored 6 runs off the Cards ace. The Cardinal faithful are hopeful he can reverse the results of that outing and lead them to the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Here’s how each starter fared in their previous outing in this series:

Starting Lineups: