Cardinals vs. Pirates prediction and odds for Saturday, June 3 (Cutch leads the offense against the Cards)

May was a historically bad month for the Pittsburgh Pirates and after falling 5-0 to the St. Louis Cardinals it looked like the struggles were going to carry over into June. Then the Pirates exploded for six runs in the seventh innings including back-to-back home runs from Ke’Bryan Hayes and Josh Palacios to take a 7-5 win. Now, Pittsburgh is 29-27, only a half game behind the Brewers for the top spot in the NL Central and five games clear of the last place Cardinals, 25-33.

As the Pirates go for the series win against their NL Central rivals they’ll send Luis Ortiz to the mound against Jordan Montgomery. Ortiz is 1-2 with a 4.35 ERA in four starts this season and Montgomery is 2-6 with a 4.48 ERA.

Let’s get into the odds for Game 2 at PNC Park.

Cardinals vs. Pirates odds, run line and total

Cardinals vs. Pirates prediction and pick

With two hits last night Andrew McCutchen is now up to 1,997 for his career and has a chance to notch his 2,000 tonight. It’s an especially good opportunity for him to have a multi-hit game because there is a lefty on the mound. For his career, Cutch has crushed lefties and this year is no different with an .866 OPS and seven extra base hits in his 51 at-bats.

The Pirates as a team have had success against lefties this year with the 14th best team OPS, .754 which is boosted by Rodolfo Castro who will be in the lineup tonight. The switch-hitting Castro has five home runs against lefties, swinging it from the right side, and a team high 1.147 OPS in a team high 58 at-bats.

Pittsburgh looks to be in a good spot as far as their offense is concerned in this one, but the pressure will be on their offense to score a lot with the way their pitching staff has been performing. Yesterday, Roansy Contreras dug them a five run hole and in the last seven days the Pirates are 29th in team ERA, 5.64 and in the last 15 days they are 28th with a 5.32 ERA.

We saw 12 runs scored at PNC Park yesterday and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one turned into a high-scoring affair as well. I like the Pirates to win, but I like the over a lot more.

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change