It looked bleak for the Smoky City Nine heading into the bottom of the 9th. Rick Ankiel homered off of Jesse Chavez in the top of the 9th to give St. Louis a 5-4 lead. The Cards trotted closer Ryan Franklin out to the mound to close the deal and not only give the Pirates a losing record but also mathematically eliminate them from the playoffs.
But the Pirates came up with four singles and two runs. The final tally came on a single from Garrett Jones. That made a winner of Chavez and a loser of Franklin.
The Cardinals scored in the first when Jason Jaramillo’s toss back to the mound sailed over the head of Paul Maholm and scored Julio Lugo from third. Hopefully he won’t get Mackey Sasser disease.
The Cardinals took a 4-1 lead before the Pirates scored three times in the sixth off of Joel Pineiro. Ronny Cedeno had a two run single and Jaramillo – who had three hits – struck the game tying blow.
That’s how it stayed until the 9th, staving off historical infamy for at least one more contest.
Maholm allowed four runs in six innings. He gave up six hits and whiffed seven. Pineiro also went six and gave up four tallies. He allowed eight safeties and struck out three.
The Good
13 hits.
A win.
Pirate pitchers combined for 10 whiffs.
The Bad
Jaramillo’s throw.
The Rest
Neil Walker gathered his first ML hit and first ML run.
Chavez recorded his first ML win.
Lastings Milledge has hits in 9 of his last 10 games. So has Jones.
The Pirates had not scored off of Franklin in his last 11 appearances covering 9-2/3 IP.
