PITTSBURGH -- Digesting the first two games of a series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals going into the finale Wednesday at PNC Park has it challenges for the two clubs.The Pirates are hanging onto anything they can, while the Cardinals might have to guard against doing cartwheels out of joy.Pittsburgh has lost the first two games of the series, with Tuesdays game a real heartbreaker. The Pirates fell behind by five runs, rallied for a one-run lead, then gave up three homers in the ninth to fall 9-7.It was Pittsburghs eighth loss in a row, leaving it three games under .500 at 67-70 and 5 1/2 games behind St. Louis in the chase for a National League wild-card spot, a spot that could very well be slipping away.A sweep by the Cardinals (73-64) could spell doom.Yet Pirates manager Clint Hurdle put on a double-thick pair of rose-colored glasses.I dont think well get any questions about fight and battle, he said. Thats what we do.Were going to fight. Were going to keep showing up. A lot of things went well (Tuesday) to get us back in the game to get us on top.St. Louis, by virtue of its comeback Tuesday, had similar feelings, but with the relief of a win -- its third in a row and one that kept it just a half-game behind San Francisco, which sits in the top National League wild-card spot.The Cardinals seem to be brimming with confidence.Weve got a team that I think the best way to describe it is a dangerous team, said Matt Carpenter, who hit a game-tying home run Tuesday with two outs and two strikes in the ninth.Weve got a team that I dont think anybody wants to match up with, especially in a postseason scenario. Its a fun team to play on. We never quit, and (Tuesday) was a good example of it.St. Louis has been feasting on home runs. Carpenters homer came as a pinch-hitter, the Cardinals major league record 15th pinch-hit homer this season. The team also has a franchise-record streak of 25 games with at least one home run, which also ties the National League record set by San Diego earlier this year.What did we have? Five? manager Mike Matheny said after Tuesdays game. Yes, it was five.Thats impressive. It shows the talent level we have, taking good at-bats and not stopping.Right-hander Mike Leake (9-9, 4.56 ERA) will return from the DL after having shingles to start Wednesday for St. Louis. It will be his first start since Aug. 21 when he threw seven scoreless innings with a walk and eight strikeouts in a 9-0 win at Philadelphia.Against Pittsburgh this season, Leake is 1-2 with a 5.71 ERA.The Pirates will counter with rookie Jameson Taillon (3-4, 3.25 ERA), who will be making his 15th start.Pittsburghs losing streak is hardly Taillons fault. Friday against Milwaukee, he allowed one run in six innings but got no run support in a 1-0 loss.He has allowed 19 earned runs in his past 10 starts, has pitched at least six innings in nine of his past 10 starts, and has given up one or no walks in 11 of his 14 starts. Cheap Sneakers NZ . The phone hearing is scheduled for 4:30pm et/1:30pm pt. Winchester, who was not penalized for the hit, appeared to make contact with Kellys head early in the first period of Thursdays game in Boston. Sneakers NZ Online . That left plenty of energy for pitching books and swatting away free agency questions. Anthony had 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Knicks avenged an embarrassing home loss with a rout of their own, beating the Boston Celtics 114-88 on Wednesday night for their third straight victory. http://www.discountsneakersnz.com/ . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. Authentic Sneakers NZ . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. Sneakers NZ For Sale . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. Ive been writing this fantasy NASCAR article for a couple years and just thought to start using the term NASCARticle. In case you thought I wasnt getting a little delirious from a season of digging inhumanly deep into NASCAR stats to give you only the finest fantasy advice, you were wrong.But Ive rested up, got myself a cookie, and Im ready to go heading into this weekends race at Martinsville. Its the last this season on a true short track (measuring less than a mile), and its much different than what we saw last week at Talladega.The key for fantasy purposes is that the race is 500 laps, tied for the most scheduled laps in aany race this season.ddddddddddddThat really shifts the focus to laps led and fastest laps, which were totally disposable last week.All those laps mean tons of bonus points; tons of 100-point days happen here. In the 23 races held at Martinsville since NASCAR began tracking all the stats used in daily fantasy scoring, 22 of them have seen a 100-point scorer. The one that didnt was this race last year, but that got topsy-turvy because of the two dominant cars going out in a revenge-related incident. ' ' '