St. Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Watch FREE: MLB Online Streaming Friday Night at 7:05 PM ET from PNC Field, Cardinals Trade Rumors with David Price?

Caught in the longest winless stretch of his career, Francisco Liriano is hoping to avoid another short outing.

Michael Wacha is just looking for some run support.

They'll oppose each other Friday night as the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals open a three-game series at PNC Park.

Liriano (0-3, 4.54 ERA) has gone without a victory in 10 regular-season starts since earning a 5-4 win at Texas on Sept. 10.

Prior to this season, he had won his first four starts against St. Louis with a 1.16 ERA, including three victories in 2013. But the left-hander gave up four runs in six innings of a 6-1 loss to the Cardinals on April 5, then lasted just two innings in a 6-1 victory April 26 as he dealt with flu-like symptoms.

In his lone regular-season start against the Pirates in 2013, Wacha (2-3, 2.55) limited them to two hits over seven scoreless innings in a 9-2 victory Sept. 8. He then yielded one run and one hit in 7 1/3 innings in a 2-1 win in Game 4 of the division series Oct. 7.

The Cardinals (18-17) have started to show more life offensively, winning three of four since that defeat while totaling 17 runs and going 12 for 33 (.364) with runners in scoring position. Matt Holliday drove in three runs in Wednesday's 7-1 victory at Atlanta, and Matt Carpenter went 3 for 4 to improve to 8 for 15 over his last four games.

Liriano has also endured a dearth of support during his winless streak, getting an average of 2.38 runs. He's received two or fewer runs of support in six of seven outings this year.

However, the Pirates (14-20) also appear to have found a spark recently, averaging 5.3 runs and batting .306 while winning four of six. Andrew McCutchen is hitting .423 during that span while Pedro Alvarez has seven RBIs.
Pittsburgh had totaled 16 runs while hitting .190 during a 1-7 stretch April 22-May 1.

The Pirates have taken nine of the last 12 regular-season meetings in Pittsburgh.

The game will be live streaming online at www.wiziwig.tv/competition.php?part=sports&discipline=baseball