Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals Prediction & Picks
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals Prediction & Picks
Date: Sunday, June 27, 2021
Time: 2:15 pm EST
Where: Busch Stadium
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals Probable Pitchers:
- Pirates: Max Kranick (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
- Cardinals: Johan Oviedo (0-3, 4.62 ERA)
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals Prediction
Why do the best spots always have rain in the forecast?
This game has “increasing chance for storms late” meaning the storms will happen later in the game. The game might finish or it might not but one thing is for sure, is that the Pirates bats could be in for a big day early.
The Pirates are 28-47 on the year but have an offense that has looked solid in the last couple of weeks. Colin Moran is back in the lineup for the Pirates along with Ke’Bryan Hayes.
Oviedo is striking out less than seven batters per nine innings while walking 4.85 batters per nine innings. His WHIP is sitting at 1.49 and he’s leaving only 68.4 percent of runners on base this season.
He currently has an XFIP of 5.04 and a SIERA of 5.23 and really has been one of the worst pitchers in baseball this season.
In his last start, Oviedo allowed two earned runs but six runs in total against the Tigers. The right-hander allowed three walks, one home run and six hits in less than four innings. He also had just one strikeout against the team that strikes out the most in baseball in Detroit.
In June, he’s gone 19 innings but has allowed 20 hits with 12 runs. He’s got just 14 strikeouts in 19 innings but has been able to induce a solid amount of grounders. However, the projected lineup for the Pirates will hit grounders just over 41 percent of the time.
The Pirates have not been bad against righties. They’re striking out just 20 percent of the time and walk nearly 10 percent of the time. Meanwhile, the top of the lineup, outside Adam Frazier, hit the ball hard. Really only Adam Frazier and Kevin Newman have struggled this season hitting the ball hard.
Oviedo is giving up nearly 40 percent of hard contact so the expectation is that the Pirates are able to hit Oviedo hard, limit strikeouts and walk when given the opportunity.
On the other hand, Max Kranick will get the start for the Pirates. It’ll be his Major League debut. He was the 11th round selection in 2016 and has a 4.66 ERA in June in Triple A with 20 strikeouts in 19.3 innings of work.
The Cardinals will likely be a running mate against Kranick but without stats, it’s hard to completely know how he’ll perform. Tylor Magill seems like the same type of deal and he pitched for the Mets and gave them quality work. So we’re not just going to fade Kranick and act like we know what we’ll get out of him.
But with Oviedo, there’s a solid sample size. He has not been good and the Pirates lineup, on the road, will guarantee nine innings to get us four runs. That’s where I’ll go.
I’m taking a Pittsburgh Pirates team total! Ya gotta go where the value is!
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals Prediction: Pirates Over 3.5 TT @ -136
Article Author
Jason grew up an avid sports fan. His passion for sports writing grew in high school and he developed a blog that was strictly for New York Sports. From his work, you will quickly realize that he loves looking at games from an analytical and numbers perspective and hopes to provide you with that same perspective in his articles.