First pitch: Wednesday, 8:15 p.m. ET
Line: Boston -105, St. Louis -105, Total: 8.0

The Red Sox will be going for a two-game sweep over the Cardinals in St. Louis on Wednesday.

The Red Sox went into St. Louis and defeated the Cardinals 6-3 on Tuesday. Boston has now won three of its past five games, and the team will be hoping to win a second straight in this one. The Cardinals, meanwhile, were going for their ninth win in 10 games in last night’s contest. They do, however, know that they can’t win them all, so their confidence won’t take any hit heading into Wednesday’s game. The starters in this primetime matchup will be RHP Rick Porcello (2-5, 4.01 ERA, 52 K) for Boston and RHP Mike Leake (4-2, 1.94 ERA, 32 K) for St. Louis. These guys have had very opposite seasons, as Porcello has struggled after a career year in 2016 and Leake has bounced back from a rather lousy season last year. One trend that stands out when looking at this game is the fact that St. Louis is 10-25 against the money line over the past two seasons in home games versus good defensive catchers that allow 0.5 or less stolen bases per game. The Red Sox are, however, a lousy 3-13 against the money line over the past two seasons versus starting pitchers that throw more than 6.5 innings per start. They also could be without 1B Hanley Ramirez (Trap), who is listed as questionable for this one. The Cardinals, meanwhile, remain without OF Stephen Piscotty (Hamstring).

After winning the AL Cy Young Award last season, Rick Porcello has really not been great to start off the year. Porcello has allowed three or more earned runs in four of his eight starts this season thus far. While that is not a huge number, it’s not what you would expect from somebody that looked like an ace in 2016. The righty wasn’t sharp in his last start either, allowing three earned runs on nine hits in six innings of work. He’ll need to do a bit of a better job of avoiding contact moving forward. Offensively, 1B Hanley Ramirez (.255 BA, 5 HR, 16 RBI) will create a huge void in the lineup if he can’t go on Wednesday. He is 4-for-9 with a homer and four RBI against Leake in his career, so that would definitely be missed if he can’t go. One positive for Boston is that OF Jackie Bradley Jr. (.200 BA, 3 HR, 8 HR) had a good game on Wednesday. He has really struggled this season, but he went 2-for-3 with a solo shot in that game. It should get his confidence going a bit.

The Cardinals are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, and Leake has been a driving force for this team in 2017. Leake has recorded a quality start or better in all seven of his appearances this season. He is inducing groundballs at an incredible rate, and he’ll look to stay hot against Boston in this one. One thing Leake will badly need to do is avoid the long-ball. He has allowed three homers over the past two games, and he’ll definitely want to keep the ball in the park in this one. Although it’s a very small sample size, OF Dexter Fowler (.228 BA, 4 HR, 13 RBI) is a guy that has gotten to Porcello in his career. Fowler is 2-for-6 with a double and an RBI against the righty in his career, and he also happens to have hit an RBI double on Tuesday night. He should be feeling good coming into this one, and the team will be counting on him to produce. The Cardinals will also be counting on guys like 3B Jedd Gyorko (.330 BA, 7 HR, 18 RBI) and C Yadier Molina (.269 BA, 3 HR, 14 RBI).