The St. Louis Cardinals are playing with a purpose and enter Wednesday with a three-game lead over the Dodgers for the second wild card in the National League.

Still no time for rest though, and I expect to see another Cardinals win here Wednesday afternoon.

Pirates hand the ball to Jameson Taillon (12-9, 3.40 ERA) who's on a solid run, but I think he'll find it tough to cool off the Cards bats.

Cardinals turn to rookie right-hander Daniel Poncedeleon (0-1, 2.67 ERA) who will make his first big league appearance against the Pirates and his fourth start in 10 big league games. He has proven himself rather useful with a 23-to-12 K/BB ratio and a 1.15 WHIP over 27 innings of work.

Cardinals are 7-1 in the last eight meetings, and we're getting a great price on a very motivated home team.

8* play on St. Louis Cardinals.