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The Pirates and Cardinals square off tonight for the twentieth time this season, this time for game 1 of the NLDS. During the regular season, the Pirates led the series by a game with 10 wins, 6 of which came in Busch Stadium. Tonight’s expected starting pitchers, Adam Wainwright and A.J. Burnett, have a combined 71.2 innings pitched during the postseason. Below is an AriBall analysis describing habits of each pitcher:

A.J. Burnett:

During the season, Burnett threw a sinker for the first pitch 15% of the time. Batters are 6 for 21 on first pitch sinkers and struggle on pitches down the middle of the plate.

On 1-2 counts, Burnett threw balls out of the zone only 31% (MLB Avg. 53%). Most of these pitches are knuckle curves low and away to right-handed batters and low and in to left-handed batters. When hitting knuckle curves into play, batters are 2 for 52 (.038). Additionally, on 2-2 pitches, Burnett throws a fastball to right-handed batters 82% of pitches (MLB Avg. 53%).

Burnett is coming off of two strong outings, both against the Reds, in which he has given up 2 runs and 9 hits in 15.0 innings pitched. If momentum plays any role in the playoffs, then Burnett should be coming out with a strong performance.

Adam Wainwright:

Wainwright mixes up his pitches very well. His fastball was thrown 17% of all pitches, he threw a cutter 30% of the time, curveball 27%, sinker 22% and a changeup 4% of pitches. Although he has a wide variety of pitches, he has fallen into some patterns. On 0-2, Wainwright threw a curveball to left-handed hitters 63% (MLB Avg. 18%) and on 2-0 counts, he threw a fastball only 23% of pitches (MLB Avg. 74%).

Even though Wainwright's fastball is relatively flat, he does get batters to swing and miss 15% of the time (MLB Avg. 10%). One reason is that the release point from his fastball, cutter and changeup are nearly identical, but differ greatly in the type of movement. His curveball can be picked up on due to a higher release point and is pitched low in the zone with a long sweeping break.

So far this year Burnett is 2-1 against St. Louis in 4 starts and Wainwright is 1-0 in 3 starts. With experience on both sides and tension between two division rivals, this game will be a great start to the series. Due to neither team dominating the other during the season, this series is sure to be great.

NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 10/2/13

By Danny Malter
AriBall.com

Follow @AriBall Follow @DanMalter