Play: St. Louis Cardinals
Rating: 8*

The St. Louis Cardinals got Thursday off following a three-game sweep of their division rival the Cubs. The Seattle Mariners are on a six-game slide after an extra-inning loss to Detroit last night, and I think they'll come up short tonight as well.

Carlos Martinez (7-5, 3.17 ERA) will take the ball for the Cardinals. He's 4-1 with a 1.78 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and .192 batting average against in five road starts this season. Over his past four starts overall, Martinez is 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA and only two Seattle hitters have any kind of experience against the right-hander.

Seattle turns to Wade LeBlanc who will start in place of injured Taijuan Walker. LeBlanc was acquired from the Blue Jays on Wednesday and will make his first start in the big leagues since 2014. He's 21-33 with a 4.47 ERA in 107 major-league appearances (71 starts) with five different teams, and a lot will be asked from him here as the Mariners' bullpen was heavily taxed in yesterday's 5-4 loss to Detroit.

Cardinals are 5-1 in their last six road games vs. a left-handed starter and 17-5 in Martinez's last 22 road starts.