First pitch: Wednesday, 7:10 p.m. ET
Line: St. Louis -110, Miami +100, Total: 8.0

The Marlins will be hoping to get on track with a victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday.

The Cardinals are on fire right now, as the team has rattled off five straight victories to move into first place in the NL Central. St. Louis has been winning games mostly on the strength of its pitching, as the team has allowed only 135 runs this season (10th in MLB). RHP Lance Lynn (4-1, 2.04 ERA, 31 K) will be hoping to keep it going on Wednesday, and he has actually been the team’s strongest starter thus far. For the Marlins, RHP Tom Koehler (1-1, 5.40 ERA, 23 K) will be hoping to get the team back into the win column. Miami was hoping to fight for a playoff spot this season, and the team has dug itself quite a hole to open the year. The Marlins need to start winning games soon and a good start from Koehler would certainly help them on Wednesday. The trends in this game strongly favor the Cardinals to come away with a win, though. St. Louis is 8-1 against the money line versus NL teams with on base percentages of .325 or worse this season. The Cardinals are also an impressive 21-9 against the money line against NL teams scoring 4.5 or more runs per game over the past two seasons. St. Louis will, however, be without OFs Dexter Fowler (Shoulder) and Stephen Piscotty (Hamstring) in this contest.

St. Louis is as hot as could be at the moment and will be trying to pick up another victory on Wednesday. Lance Lynn will be taking the ball for the Cards, and he has been ridiculous this season. Over his past four starts, Lynn has allowed only two earned runs in 25 innings of work. He has struck out five or more batters in each of those four contests and could give this Marlins lineup some serious trouble here. One thing Lynn will need to keep doing is stay down in the strike zone. In his only truly poor start this year, Lynn allowed three homers against the Nats in an Apr. 11 game. He has allowed just one homer since that, and that is a huge reason for his success. Offensively, 1B Matt Carpenter (.268 BA, 7 HR, 22 RBI) and 3B Jedd Gyorko (.333 BA, 6 HR, 15 RBI) will need to produce on Wednesday. Both guys have been hitting very well this season, and they should be able to get to Koehler in this contest.

The Marlins are not playing the way they are capable of right now and the team knows that it needs to start winning games soon. Tom Koehler will be tasked with shutting down a scorching hot Cardinals team on Wednesday, and that’s just not going to be easy for the righty. Koehler has allowed three or more earned runs in five straight starts, and he has failed to pitch into the sixth inning of four of those outings. It’s going to be tough for Miami to win if Koehler can’t work deeper into this game. If he is going to struggle then the Marlins offense will need to find a way to provide runs for him. One guy to keep an eye out for in this one is OF Giancarlo Stanton (.254 BA, 11 HR, 26 RBI). Stanton has been on fire lately, as he has hit four homers over the past four games. If he can go yard on Wednesday then the Marlins will have a shot to win here.