Cardinals try to avoid series sweep against Astros

St. Louis Cardinals (28-31, third in the NL Central) vs. Houston Astros (28-34, third in the AL West)

Houston; Wednesday, 2:10 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABIES: Cardinals: Miles Mikolas (3-6, 5.54 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 50 strikeouts); Astros: Ronel Blanco (5-1, 2.44 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 57 strikeouts)

: LINE Astros -159, Cardinals +134; over/under = 9 races

BOTTOM LINE: The Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals play the final game of a three-game series. The Astros will sweep the series with a victory.

Houston is 28-34 overall and 17-17 in home games. The Astros are 15-7 in games where they have not allowed a home run.

St. Louis is 15-19 on the road and 28-31 overall. Cardinals pitchers have a collective ERA of 4.14, which ranks 10th in the NL.

The teams play Wednesday for the third time this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Kyle Tucker has 19 homers, 46 walks and 40 RBIs while hitting .266 for the Astros. Yordan Alvarez is 15-for-39 with two doubles, three homers and six RBIs over the last 10 games.

Brendan Donovan has 14 doubles, one triple and four home runs for the Cardinals. Masyn Winn is 13-for-36 with two doubles, a home run and seven RBIs over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Astros: 5-5, .237 batting average, 3.06 ERA, opponents outscored by six runs

Cardinals: 5-5, .249 batting average, 3.56 ERA, led by four runs

INJURIES: Astros: Alex Bregman: daily (hand), Spencer Arrighetti: daily (calf), Kyle Tucker: daily (shin), Cristian Javier: 15 day IL (forearm), Oliver Ortega: 60 day IL ( elbow), Bennett Sousa: 60-day IL (shoulder), Penn Murfee: 60-day IL (elbow), Luis Garcia: 60-day IL (elbow), Lance McCullers Jr.: 60-day IL (elbow), Jose Urquidy: IL of 15 days (forearm), Kendall Graveman: IL of 60 days (elbow)

Cardinals: Lars Nootbaar: 10-day IL (oblique), Nick Robertson: 15-day IL (elbow), Riley O’Brien: 60-day IL (forearm), Willson Contreras: 10-day IL (arm), Giovanny Gallegos: IL of 15 days (shoulder), Tommy Edman: IL of 60 days (wrist), Steven Matz: IL of 15 days (back), Drew Rom: IL of 60 days (biceps), Keynan Middleton: IL of 15 days (forearm )

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.