The Minnesota Twins traded a lot of players prior to the deadline, but kept Michael Pineda, who will look to guide them to a third straight victory in a game he started when he takes the hill on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
In four road stats, Pineda is 2-2 with two home runs allowed and a 4.42 ERA in 18 ¹/₃ innings. He has allowed just five walks in his past six starts.
Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright has been highly efficient at home, with a 2.70 ERA and 0.9 home runs and 1.8 walks per nine innings across 12 starts, and St. Louis has won seven of the past nine games he has started.
The Cardinals’ offense is registering 3.7 runs per game since the beginning of June, which is the fewest in the NL, while the Twins scored three runs or fewer in each of their first six games since trading Nelson Cruz.
St. Louis’ pitching staff is allowing 0.8 runs per nine innings at home and its offense is drawing the fewest walks per game of any NL team, so Sunday’s affair will be one that won’t light up the scoreboard.
The play: Twins-Cardinals total, Under 8 ¹/₂ runs.