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Two teams with slim playoff hopes square off Monday as the St. Louis Cardinals visit the San Francisco Giants for the opener of their three-game series at Oracle Park. First pitch is set for 9:40 p.m. ET.

St. Louis (76-80) has won only four of its last 12 contests, including Sunday's 5-1 triumph over the National League Central champion Milwaukee Brewers, but is four games out of the final NL wild card spot with six remaining. Prior to their current struggles, the Cardinals won two of three against the Giants at home.

San Francisco (77-79) also has been in a funk, losing seven of eight before defeating the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 on Sunday. The Giants are three games back in the race for the third wild card with six left.

Michael McGreevy (7-3, 4.08 ERA) attempts to keep the Cardinals' hopes alive when he makes his 15th start of the season. The 25-year-old rookie right-hander is coming off perhaps the best outing of his brief career, a victory against the Cincinnati Reds last Tuesday in which he scattered three hits and registered six strikeouts over seven scoreless innings.

The Giants counter with three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander (3-10, 3.75). The 42-year-old righty has been superb of late, allowing two runs or fewer in nine of his last 11 starts while keeping his opponents off the scoreboard five times during that stretch. Verlander has yielded a total of one run while recording 23 strikeouts over 25 innings in his last four turns, including an outing against St. Louis on Sept. 6 in which he fanned six batters across six scoreless frames.

Top sportsbooks have set the total strikeouts prop for Verlander at 4.5 (Over -140, Under +108) and McGreevy at 3.5 (Over -114, Under -114). The SportsLine Inside the Lines team's model, which simulates every MLB game 10,000 times, rates McGreevy's Over 3.5 strikeouts prop as a 3-star play on its 5-star scale and Verlander's Over 4.5 as a 2.5-star play.

However, the model has found better value on Monday's three-game schedule, as there are two pitcher strikeout player props that it has rated at 5 stars and one at 4.5 stars that returns plus money. Here they are:

Chris Sale Under 8.5 strikeouts (-101) vs. Nationals (7:15 p.m. ET)

Rating: 5 stars
Model projection: 7.1 strikeouts

The 36-year-old Sale has been consistent since returning from a rib cage injury that sidelined him for 2 1/2 months, registering nine strikeouts in each of his four starts. Washington has struck out 10 or more times in six consecutive contests and eight of its last nine. However, the Nationals were embarrassed by the Braves at home during their four-game series last week, as they were outscored 31-10 while getting swept, and should be eager to exact some revenge -- particularly against Sale, who limited them to three hits and fanned nine over eight scoreless innings last Tuesday.

MacKenzie Gore Over 4.5 strikeouts (-132) vs. Braves (7:15 p.m. ET)

Rating: 5 stars
Model projection: 6.1 strikeouts

Gore is 12th in the NL with a career-high 182 strikeouts and racked up five over 5 1/3 scoreless innings opposite fellow left-hander Sale last week. The 26-year-old Gore has averaged one strikeout per frame in eight career starts against the Braves, racking up 41 in 41 innings. He has fanned five or more batters in 21 of his 29 turns this season and three of his last five meetings with Atlanta.

Nick Pivetta Over 5.5 strikeouts (+113) vs. Brewers (9:40 p.m. ET)

Rating: 4.5 stars
Model projection: 6.2 strikeouts

Pivetta ranks 11th in the NL with 185 strikeouts and is four away from surpassing the career high he set in 2018 with the Philadelphia Phillies. The 32-year-old Canadian right-hander has fanned at least six batters in four of his last six starts and punched out five in just 4 2/3 innings against the New York Mets last Wednesday. Pivetta has recorded 19 strikeouts over as many frames in four career turns versus the Brewers, who whiffed 10 or more times in two of their three contests against St. Louis over the weekend.