The set-up: St. Louis opened a 10-game road trip by losing two of three at Pittsburgh over the weekend. The Cards fell to 18-23 on the road in 2017 and to 44-47 on the season, leaving them 6 1/2 back of the Brewers in the NL Central. The Mets began the second half by winning 14-2 and 9-3 over the visiting Rockies but were then routed 13-4 in Sunday's series finale. The Mets welcome the Cards to Citi Field for a four-game series beginning tonight at 41-48, leaving them 13 games back of the Nats in the NL East.

The pitching matchup: Adam Wainwright (10-5 & 5.20 ERA) will get the start for the Cards and Zack Wheeler (3-6 & 4.86 ERA) for the Mets. Wainwright bested Wheeler and the Mets 4-1 right before the break in St. Louis on July 8, allowing one run and recording seven strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings. That gives him three straight wins, recording at least seven strikeouts in each outing. Wainwright is 4-5 with a 4.66 ERA in 12 career appearances (10 starts / Cards are 5-5) against New York. Wheeler's last win came all the way back on May 20. He is win-less in his last seven starts since (he's 0-4 and the team 2-5) and had a stretch of three straight starts in which he didn't make it past the fourth inning before he had a strong outing on July 8 at St. Louis, allowing two runs over six innings (that marked his first career appearance against the Cards).

The pick: Wainwright has pitched well since mid-May, although he has thrown in a few clunkers. Still, he has allowed two ERs or less in eight of his 11 starts since May 14 and that's not bad. Wheeler pitched as well as Wainwright when these two met on July 8 right before the break (4-1 St. Louis win) and I expect another low-scoring game in this one. Make the Under a 10* play.