That's the $64,000 question. Can young arms like Wacha and Martinez hold up for these kind of innings? They appear to already be showing a little wear on some of their recent starts but are still holding their own well enough. How nice would it be to let each of them skip a start down the stretch? Not likely, if the Pirates keep winning.

The Cards should be able to win 6 or 7 of the 10 games on this west coast road trip. Both Arizona and San Diego have losing records and are out of the playoff picture, for all practical purposes. We just took 2 of 3 from San Fran and it looks like we won't face Bumgarner again (unless he pinch hits). But there is one huge obstacle: This is a west coast trip. For whatever reason, the Cards have had too many west coast trips that were sub .500 even when their opponents are not that great. Let's hope they shake off that tendency and get at least 6 wins out of the trip.