First pitch: Tuesday, 7:05 p.m. EDT
Line: St. Louis -145, Pittsburgh +135, Total: 7.5

St. Louis needs to make up some room on the surging Brewers, but Jeff Karstens and the Pirates will look to follow up Monday’s victory with a repeat performance on Tuesday night. Ryan Doumit went 4-for-4 Monday night, with a three-run dinger to lead Pittsburgh to a 6-2 victory in the series opener.

Chris Carpenter has had quite a career against the Pirates, going 12-2 with a 2.24 ERA in 17 career starts. St. Louis has been effective as a road favorite of -125 to -150, going 14-6 (70%) this year. The Cards also have done a good job of bouncing back after losses (32-25). Jeff Karstens has only pitched 1.1 scoreless innings of relief this year against the Cardinals, but last season threw 12 scoreless innings against St. Louis. However, Pittsburgh has been lackluster against right-handed pitchers (38-49) and also has not been able to beat teams with a winning record (21-28). The pick is for ST. LOUIS to bounce back with its ace on the mound and handle the Pirates.

This three star FoxSheets trend also backs the Cardinals.

Play Against - All underdogs with a money line of +125 to +175 (PITTSBURGH) - bad offensive team (<=4.1 runs/game) against a good starting pitcher (ERA<=3.70) (NL), with a decent bullpen whose WHIP is 1.350 to 1.450 on the season. (83-26 over the last 5 seasons.) (76.1%, +42.3 units. Rating = 3*).

Carpenter (8-8, 3.68 ERA) has been terrific in his past 10 starts, going 7-1 with a 2.60 ERA. He’s coming off a strong pitching performance Thursday against division leading Milwaukee, in which he threw eight innings, allowing only two runs (despite surrendering 10 hits and three walks) in a 5-2 victory. The Cardinals now find themselves six games behind the Brewers in the NL Central. Albert Pujols will look to jump start the St. Louis offense with his .384 average and 27 homers in 84 career games at PNC Park.

Karstens (9-6, 3.04 ERA) has been a nice surprise this year and at one point was the NL leader in ERA (2.28). He has allowed more than 3 ER only twice in his 21 starts this season. The Padres rocked him for nine runs in 3.1 innings on Aug. 5, but he bounced back nicely with a six-inning, two-run, nine-strikeout performance in a win at San Francisco last Wednesday. The Pirates get back Jose Tabata Tuesday night from a quad injury. Tabata has been out since June 27 so he could be rusty, but has hit safely in all 15 career games against St. Louis, posting a .397 BA.