Tonight at 8:07 p.m. ET, it's winner-take-all as the Pittsburgh Pirates (2-2) and St. Louis Cardinals (2-2) match up in a pivotal Game 5 of the National League Division Series live from Busch Stadium in St. Louis with a chance to advance to the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at stake. The game can be live streamed here. Pittsburgh fans can tune into all the action on KDKA-FM 93.7 while St. Louis fans can do the same by turning their dials to KMOX 1120
The series between the two teams has been back-and-forth and has now come down to the wire as each team finds itself just one win away from a champagne shower. The fate of the Pirates is placed in the hands of rookie Gerrit Cole, who mans the mound for them while St. Louis gives the ball to Adam Wainwright, who toes the rubber in hopes to propel St. Louis to the NLCS.
Cole went 10-7 with a 3.22 ERA through nine games in the regular season and notched a win earlier in this series while giving up one run on two hits through six innings with a walk and five strikeouts. Wainwright, meanwhile, went 19-9 with a 2.94 ERA through 34 regular season games and also won earlier in this series while lasting seven innings and giving up just one run on three hits while striking out nine.
Wainwright said he'll be ready for the Pirates.
"Well, listening to Andrew McCutchen talk, he said they're going to be ready for me, so I'll make sure I'm ready for them, too," Wainwright said Tuesday via MLB.com.
McCutchen is 5-for-14 with a double and two runs scored in this series, but has yet to register a homer or RBI.
Despite Cole's dominance earlier in this series, the Cards lineup and Cole are now familiar with each other, so he knows he needs to hit his spots.
"They have seen me now a few days ago, but at the same time, I've seen them," Cole said to MLB.com. "So it's just going to come down to executing a handful of pitches."
Squaring off against each other is nothing new to these NL Central foes, who have gone toe-to-toe for the past six months just to see all their battling and effort come down to one final game. The Pirates won a wildcard game just to get here while the Cardinals won their first division crown since 2009, so neither wants to go home.
"It will be our Game No. 168," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle told MLB.com. "It will also be now the 24th time we've played the Cardinals. We've played them close. It has been a very respectful challenge series."
The Pirates took 10 of 19 contests against the Cards in the regular season, but it's all nodded up at two games apiece in October. The Cardinals outscored Pittsburgh 87-85 in their regular season meetings despite losing the season series by one game. The Cards and Pirates have developed a respect for each other despite being rivals, but St. Louis head coach Mike Matheny said he wouldn't call it a friendly rivalry.
"I'm not sure I'd go 'friendly,' as much as, I think, mutual respect," Matheny said, according to MLB.com. "We respect the talent that they have, the way they go about the game. They fight until the end, just like the kind of baseball we want to play."
The teams split the first two games in St. Louis by large margins before having to each squeak out a tight win in Pittsburgh, so neither team knows what to expect as the series shifts back to Busch Stadium.
Matt Holliday's Game 4 homer in Pittsburgh eventually nodded the series up for the Cardinals after the Pirates walked Carlos Beltran intentionally to get to him. They walked Beltran for good reason as he has two homers and is tied for the lead with six RBIs through the first four games and is a .355 lifetime hitter in the playoffs with 16 homers and 31 RBIs.
"I don't take that personally or anything," Holliday said. "I'm glad Carlos was on base."
The Pirates meanwhile would like to get some table setters going as Starling Marte is 1-for-15 in the series and Neil Walker is hitless through 16 at-bats. While those stats are dire, Pedro Alvarez is tied for the postseason lead with three homers through four games and leads the playoffs in slugging (1.154) and OPS (1.621) while his five RBIs rank third.
It's all on the line tonight at Busch Stadium when NL Central rivals square off as the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates lay it all on the line for a chance to go to the National League Championship Series.
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