Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 6/15/2022

Time: 7:45 p.m. ET

Venue: Busch Stadium, St. Louis, MO

Where to watch: AT&T SportsNet-Pittsburgh, Bally Sports Midwest

DraftKings: Cardinals -160, Pirates +140

BetMGM: Cardinals -165, Pirates +135

Caesars: Cardinals -164, Pirates +145

Pirates: 24-37

Cardinals: 37-27

Miles Mikolas was so close. One strike away from the first no hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals in over two decades. It came down to the last pitch, and had it been either a third strike or an out it would have been an emphatic no hitter for the ace of the Cardinals.

Alas, Harrison Bader try to out run a curveball delivered to Cal Mitchell, but barely missed. Mikolas finished pitching 8 and 2/3 innings, throwing 129 pitches, striking out six Pittsburgh Pirates batters, and falling short of a no hitter because of a two strike, two out hit.

"I'm a little over it. I mean it stinks, to get that close and then kind of come up empty-handed," Mikolas said. "That's a great outing. I'll be real proud that I gave the bullpen kind of another night off. I know we need it with the doubleheader. I'm happy — but deep down it kind of stinks."

Ultimately at the end of the day, it's about winning for the first place Cardinals and they took care of a doubleheader on Tuesday, starting the day with a 3-1 victory in the early afternoon, and then finishing it with a 9-1 victory in the nightcap.

"If he can't get it, nobody can — except maybe one of those guys in the stands when they have that like 3-foot glove, maybe that guy," Mikolas said of Bader tracking that drive down. "We're playing shallow so they don't kind of doink one in. I think that's what you're always guarding against is you don't want to lose it cheap. The guy hit a ball to the track, I'll give it to him. And it was a good pitch. I'm more OK with that then if the dude bloops a broken-bat bleeder in there somewhere."

The series will conclude on Wednesday as the Cardinals attempt to go for the four game sweep against the falling like a meteorite Pirates at this current juncture. On top of the Cardinals ace throwing one of the best games of his career, Paul Goldschmidt continued to destroy baseballs again finishing with four hits at a four at bats, and hitting two home runs in the first two innings. The Cardinals jumped out to A7 run lead in the first two innings, which shows you how badly Pittsburgh wants to get out of Busch Stadium right now.

When you consider how dominant the top of the Cardinals hitting order was during this game, you are almost astonished that they only put up nine runs. Goldschmidt drove in five of those runs, and rookie Nolan Gorman drove in the other two.

Tommy Edman had three hits in five at bats from the leadoff spot and hit a home run, Brendan Donovan also had four hits in five at bats to raise his batting average to .328, and Goldschmidt bumped his average up to .349 with that dominant performance.

It has been just a dominant display of offensive firepower for the Cardinals to this point. So much so that they are starting to run away with the division lead over the struggling Milwaukee Brewers. And I'm not one to say that a division race is over in the middle of June, but it is worth noting that there are two teams vying for the top spot in the National League central division right now and one of them can hit any other cannot. And to me that is the most important thing.

I don't think you need to be wasting your time too much with this one. You can look at the Cardinals and firmly believe that they will complete this sweep and put the pirates out of their misery. This is going to be a very long game because the Cardinals will probably run away with this one by double digits. Oh, and Jack Flaherty makes his season debut. Enough of a reason to pick them going away. Cardinals win 11-1

Pirates are 8-19 as an underdog of +150 or more this season.

Pirates are 10-18 as a road underdog this season.

Cardinals are 53-36 as a home favorite the past three seasons.

Pirates:
Tucupita Marcano (L) 2B
Bryan Reynolds (S) CF
Ke'Bryan Hayes (R) 3B
Daniel Vogelbach (L) DH
Jack Suwinski (L) LF
Michael Chavis (R) 1B
Cal Mitchell (L) RF
Michael Perez (L) C
Diego Castillo (R) SS
SP - Roansy Contreras

Cardinals:
Tommy Edman (S) SS
Nolan Gorman (L) DH
Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
Nolan Arenado (R) 3B
Tyler O'Neill (R) LF
Brendan Donovan (L) 2B
Dylan Carlson (S) RF
Yadier Molina (R) C
Harrison Bader (R) CF
SP - Jack Flaherty

Batting average: Ke'Bryan Hayes -- .271

Home runs: Bryan Reynolds -- 10

RBI: Michael Chavis -- 22

Wins: Dillon Peters -- 4

ERA: Jose Quintana -- 3.53

Batting average: Paul Goldschmidt -- .349

Home runs: Paul Goldschmidt -- 16

RBI: Paul Goldschmidt -- 56

Wins: Miles Mikolas -- 5

ERA: Miles Mikolas -- 2.62