The set-up: This series features a couple of lop-sided match-ups on the mound and this is one of them. The visitors go with Miles Mikolas, while the home side goes with Pablo Lopez.

The pitchers: Mikolas is so far 11-3 with a 2.75 ERA. He most recently gave up two runs off seven hits while striking out six over seven innings in a no-decision to Colorado on Thursday. Over five July starts Mikolas would give up 11 runs over 27 innings while also posting 19 strikeouts. To go along with his strong ERA, he also owns a solid 1.08 WHIP and 97:25 K/BB over 137.1 frames of work.

Lopez is so far 2-2 with a 4.67 ERA. Lopez has looked decent over his six career big league starts, but not great. Note that he's just 1-2 with a 5.60 ERA at home as well.

The pick: The sample size is simply too small for Lopez to get an entirely accurate read, but in the early going the rookie has been terrible in front of the home town crowd. And that doesn't bode well facing this opportunistic Cards' line-up. There's no reason not to think that Mikolas can't carry over his focus to this one. Lay the price, play on St. Louis.