St. Louis Cardinals (44-40, second in the NL Central) vs. Atlanta Braves (49-34, second in the NL East)
Atlanta; Thursday, 7:20 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Cardinals: Matthew Liberatore (2-1, 5.66 ERA, 1.74 WHIP, 18 strikeouts); Braves: Spencer Strider (4-2, 3.17 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 90 strikeouts)
FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK LINE: Braves -218, Cardinals +179; over/under is 9 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Atlanta Braves, on a three-game home winning streak, host the St. Louis Cardinals.
Atlanta is 27-17 at home and 49-34 overall. The Braves have the 10th-best team batting average in MLB play at .248.
St. Louis has a 44-40 record overall and a 20-24 record on the road. The Cardinals are 23-9 in games when they did not allow a home run.
Thursday's game is the fourth time these teams square off this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Austin Riley leads the Braves with 21 home runs while slugging .540. Dansby Swanson is 11-for-45 with four doubles, a home run and six RBI over the last 10 games.
Nolan Arenado has 20 doubles, a triple, 17 home runs and 55 RBI while hitting .295 for the Cardinals. Paul Goldschmidt is 14-for-37 with four doubles and two home runs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Braves: 7-3, .256 batting average, 2.90 ERA, outscored opponents by 15 runs
Cardinals: 3-7, .243 batting average, 4.29 ERA, outscored by eight runs
INJURIES: Braves: Kenley Jansen: 15-Day IL (heart), Luke Jackson: 60-Day IL (elbow), Ozzie Albies: 60-Day IL (foot), Manny Pina: 60-Day IL (wrist), Mike Soroka: 60-Day IL (achilles), Kirby Yates: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Cardinals: Johan Oviedo: day-to-day (undisclosed), T.J. McFarland: 15-Day IL (illness), Harrison Bader: 10-Day IL (foot), Jack Flaherty: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Genesis Cabrera: 10-Day IL (covid-19), Drew VerHagen: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Tyler O'Neill: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Yadier Molina: 10-Day IL (knee), Corey Dickerson: 10-Day IL (calf), Steven Matz: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Alex Reyes: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
