Tuesday night started as an old school pitcher’s duel as the Cardinals Andre Pallante and the Pirates Jared Jones were throwing a lot of balls that were missing bats. Ultimately, it would be the Pittsburgh and St. Louis bullpens that would decide the winner.
The first real scoring opportunity wouldn’t come until the bottom of the 4th inning when Pittsburgh would load the bases in a somewhat unusual way. With one out, Bryan Reynolds would reach on catcher’s interference. After Oneil Cruz grounded out on a dribbler
in front of home plate (thanks to a successful St. Louis challenge), Pallante walked Flores Jr. giving the Pirates runners at first and second. Ryan O’Hearn then hit a hard grounder to Thomas Saggese at third base who seemed to stop the ball with his body, but was then unable to tag out Reynolds who was running to third and also couldn’t manage to get a throw off to first base. Fortunately for the Cardinals, Simon grounded out with the bases loaded to end the Pittsburgh scoring threat.
While Andre Pallante was shutting the Pirates down while pitching out of the occasional jam, Jared Jones of the Pirates was perfect through the first 5 innings. The Cardinals had no hits or baserunners going into the top of the 6th inning. The first Cardinals hit and baserunner was Nathan Church who managed to barely slap a ball out of the reach of the Pirates third baseman Gonzales that Church turned into a one-out double. Unfortunately, St. Louis could not turn that into a run as Masyn Winn lined out to first and JJ Wetherholt struck out.
The Pirates would break the scoreless tie in the bottom of the 6th inning when Oneil Cruz drew a one-out walk. He advanced to second on a groundout by Flores Jr and then scored when Ryan O’Hearn singled to left making it 1-0 Pittsburgh. That would end Andre Pallante’s night as he gave the Cardinals a strong 6 full innings allowing just 3 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 2 and walking 2.
After the Cardinals went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th inning, Justin Bruihl started the bottom of the 7th inning, but didn’t finish it. He walked Horwitz to start the inning which almost always leads to trouble. One out later, Konnor Griffin singled to left-center for his second hit of the game giving the Pirates runners at first and second with one out. Horwitz advanced to third as Lowe flied out to center for the second out. Manager Oli Marmol decided to bring in Cade Winquest to face Bryan Reynolds. After Winquest jumped out to an 0-2 count on Reynolds, he bounced the third pitch in the dirt which scored Horwitz for the second Pittsburgh run making it 2-0 Pirates after 7 innings.
Jared Jones of the Pirates pitched an amazing game. Pittsburgh pulled him after he completed 7 innings allowing just one hit, no runs and striking out 9 while walking no one. He was replaced by former Cardinal Luke Weaver. Other than giving up a walk to Thomas Saggese, he had no real problems shutting the Cardinals down in the top of the 8th inning.
Cade Winquest stayed in the game to start the bottom of the 8th inning. He gave up a leadoff double to Bryan Reynolds to start the inning as Pittsburgh looked poised to add to their lead. However, Winquest got Cruz to flyout to center and then struck out Flores Jr. for the second out. Cade then struck out O’Hearn to end the Pirates threat.
The Cardinals would have to hope that their bats would awaken in the top of the 9th as Masyn Winn was leading it off. The Pirates brought in Gregory Soto to close out St. Louis. Instead, he issued a 4-pitch walk to Winn bringing up Pennsylvania native JJ Wetherholt as the potential tying run. JJ worked the count full, but ended up striking out watching a 98 mph sinker go over the middle of the plate for the first out. Iván Herrera was next for St. Louis and he also worked the count full before he struck out swinging for the second out. Herrera struck out 4 times Tuesday night. That left the game in the hands of Alec Burleson who flew out on the first pitch he saw for the final out of the game.
The St. Louis Cardinals will do battle with the Bucs again at PNC Park Wednesday night. Matthew Liberatore is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals Wednesday night while the Pirates have yet to announce their starter. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40pm central time and the game broadcast will be available via Cardinals.tv.
