Spoiler alert: There weren’t going to be many highlights to share from tonight’s St. Louis Cardinals game in Pittsburgh as the Pirates bullpen nearly no-hit the birds. However, the St. Louis Cardinals broke the heart of the Bucks thanks in part to a loud homecoming from JJ Wetherholt and a rally for the ages.
The Pittsburgh Pirates tossed a potpourri of pitchers on the mound for Monday night’s game versus the St. Louis Cardinals and nearly made history. Mason Montgomery tossed 1 inning. He was followed
by Justin Lawrence who also served his team with a perfect inning. Wilber Dotel was responsible for the heart of the game and he was also perfect through his 4 innings. It wasn’t until Evan Sisk in the top of the 7th inning that a St. Louis Cardinal reached base and that was Alec Burleson barely beating out an infield hit tapped to third baseman Nick Gonzales.
The Pittsburgh Pirates offense wasn’t exactly on fire either as Dustin May held them to 2 runs on just 7 hits through a solid 6 innings. Dustin May’s start was nearly overlooked when Mangum singled in Gonzales in the bottom of the 1st inning and O’Hearn scored Lowe on a single in the bottom of the 2nd inning to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead. It’s too bad that the Cardinals offense didn’t give him support earlier.
The Cardinals offense was such a dud (for the first 8 innings) Monday night that the TV play of the game was a groundout to third base in the 7th inning. Seriously. That changed in the 9th inning, though, when Pedro Pagés hit a one-out home run into the left field bleachers.
The Pagés bomb was followed up by JJ Wetherholt who grew up just 18 miles from PNC Park. With many friends and family in the stands to watch, JJ ripped a bomb over the right-center field wall to tie the game 2-2. Welcome home, rookie, indeed.
The cardiac Cardinals were not done. Iván Herrera walked and was pinch-run for by Victor Scott II. Alec Burleson then hit a dribbler that hugged the third base line and refused to go fowl for an infield hit. Jordan Walker then walked to load the bases. José Fermín followed that with a blazing double down the left field line to give the Cardinals a 4-2 lead.
George Soriano was brought in to close out the heart of the Pirates lineup in the bottom of the 9th representing a still-exhausted bullpen. Soriano was nearly lights out with Pittsburgh managing a 9th inning single, but future superstar Konnor Griffin was the final out.
The St. Louis Cardinals will try for an encore Tuesday night when Kyle Leahy takes the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40pm central time again at PNC Park.
