In a noble quest for more pageviews, we present our Pirates Prospects liveblog of NLDS Game 2.
Wait, let me try that again.
To better serve our wonderful readers who may not be able to watch this playoff game due to: not having MLB Network, working, not having MLB Network, etc., we present our Pirates liveblog of NLDS Game 2.
It’s me, James Santelli, and Tim Williams providing updates throughout the afternoon when 140 characters will simply not suffice.
We join this game already in progress…
12:22 pm CT – (James) In a bit of breaking news, Carlos Beltran is good at hitting baseballs. The man who hit the three-run homer yesterday just collected St. Louis’ first hit on a long double off the right-center-field wall.
12:25 pm CT – (James) Gerrit Cole gets out of the first inning with a pair of fly-ball outs. If Cole is over-excited by the setting and magnitude of his first playoff start, it’s not showing up in the velocity. At times he could start games in the high-90s, but Cole began today around 95 mph before cranking it up to 97 later in the first.
12:34 pm CT – (James) I noted earlier on this site that Cardinals starter Lance Lynn does not get a huge number of whiffs on his breaking balls. And then he goes and strikes out four of the first seven Pirates hitters on curveballs. Okey-doke.
12:35 pm CT – (Tim) It’s going to be a tough day for the outfielders, as we’ve seen early on. Jon Jay had trouble with Pedro Alvarez’s double, and Yadier Molina had issues with a pop up behind home plate. The sun is overhead and slightly behind home plate, while the sky is a light blue/white mixture. It’s going to be tough to pick up the ball with that going on.
12:39 pm CT – (James) PIRATES 1, CARDINALS 0. Lance Lynn intentionally walked Jordy Mercer to get to Gerrit Cole with two outs. Big mistake. Well, a moderately-sized mistake. Cole grounds an RBI single up the middle to score Pedro Alvarez, who reached on a double/Jon Jay route screwup.
12:45 pm CT – (James) Gerrit Cole is throwing a lot of cutters to left-handers, and he relied heavily on it against lefty Jon Jay. Perhaps Cole is hoping the action on the pitch will run into lefties and get weak contact. It’s working so far — two shutout frames for the Pirates starter.
12:55 pm CT – (Tim) PIRATES 3, CARDINALS 0. Pedro Alvarez hits a two run homer to center, two batters after Justin Morneau hit an opposite field single. That’s the second homer of the series for Alvarez, who many said was the key to this series for the Pirates, due to the lack of left-handed pitchers in St. Louis. In the last two years, Alvarez has 32 homers during the day, which ranks second in baseball to Miguel Cabrera.
12:57 pm CT – (Tim) After Pedro’s home run, the Cardinals went to the bullpen and got Shelby Miller warming up. Lance Lynn got out of the inning with no further damage. That’s the point I was making last night about Burnett. You need to have a guy warming up in that situation. Best case is what we saw: Lynn gets out of it and you sit Miller down. But if Lynn continues to struggle, you can bring Miller in to pitch and limit the damage while keeping the game close.
1:02 pm CT – (James) While Tim provides substantive analysis, this is my contribution:
Enjoy Costas on the play-by-play, everyone.
1:06 pm CT – (James) Gerrit Cole is playing with fire right now, in more ways than one. His fastball is being elevated, which was common for Cole in college and the minors. That can lead to Cole being smacked around, but he has gotten lucky in that all of the hard hits (save Carlos Beltran’s double) have found gloves in the outfield. But the high heat can also turn hitters around, like the 98-mph fastball to get Matt Carpenter at the end of the 3rd.
1:12 pm CT – (James) Don’t let it be lost that Lance Lynn is actually pitching pretty well. He has five strikeouts through four innings, is locating pretty well and the first run he allowed was really a seeing-eye single from Cole. But one mistake can be enough to ruin a start, and Lynn’s was elevating a 1-0 fastball to Pedro Alvarez.
1:18 pm CT – (Tim) Gerrit Cole just got Matt Holliday looking on a 97 MPH fastball below the knees. It looked like a ball, but Russell Martin quickly brought it back up to the strike zone. Looks like the Pirates benefitted from Martin’s frame work there. Cole has allowed one hit through four innings. In those four innings he has thrown 51 pitches, while Lance Lynn has thrown 70.
1:26 pm CT – (James) PIRATES 4, CARDINALS 0 Justin Morneau gets things going in the 5th inning with a double off the left-center-field wall. Justin Morneau will never be allowed to homer as a Pirate. Then Marlon Byrd knocks him in with a ground-rule double.
1:31 pm CT – (Tim) PIRATES 5, CARDINALS 0 Seth Maness came in to replace Lance Lynn after Lynn worked around Pedro Alvarez with a four pitch walk. Then Maness gave up an RBI single to Russell Martin. The Cardinals had Shelby Miller warming up in the bullpen, and he could come on next.
1:41 pm CT – (Tim) PIRATES 5, CARDINALS 1 Yadier Molina hit a solo homer to put the Cardinals on the board. This is looking like the opposite of yesterday’s game. One team gets out to a big lead and their starter dominates. Other team counters with a solo homer in the fifth inning.
1:45 pm CT – (Tim) Coming into this game, my biggest concern was that Gerrit Cole was beating up on bad teams in September. So far today: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 HR. He’s definitely holding his own against the Cardinals. He’s also making a strong case to be the game five starter, if there is a game five.
2:03 pm CT – (James) Sorry for the delay in updates. Tim has been clicked into it for a while and I thought he was writing. Silly me.
Please don’t fire me.
2:05 pm CT – (James) Large Adron Chambers flies out to the warning track. Again, Gerrit Cole has been elevating fastballs all game long, but the Cardinals still only have two hits. There is some luck there mixed with effectiveness. Pirates’ bullpen starting to move as Cole is past the 70-pitch mark in the 6th.
2:15 pm CT – (Tim) Gerrit Cole froze Carlos Beltran on a 3-2 pitch with a 98 MPH two seam fastball that cut back on the inside part of the plate. Second time he’s frozen a Cardinals hitter today on a 3-2, 98 MPH pitch. He’s at 86 pitches and Tony Watson is warming up, so he could be done. If he is, Cole leaves with 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 HR.
2:24 pm CT – (James) PIRATES 6, CARDINALS 1 on a sacrifice fly to score Marlon Byrd. And leave Cole will. Gaby Sanchez bats for Cole in the 7th, and Tony Watson will come on in relief.
2:35 pm CT – (James) I’ve poked fun at St. Louis fans on Twitter this afternoon, but I’ll give them some props. The Cardinals are down five runs in the 7th, but the ballpark is still packed and pretty loud, and the noise amps up with any run-scoring opportunity. The “best fans in baseball” meme is overdone, but these people know how to treat the playoffs.
2:38 pm CT – (James) Tony Watson gets in a little bit of danger in the 7th on a single and a walk, but he escapes by taking a ground ball himself and tagging out Daniel Descalso. The Pirates are six outs from evening the series.
2:44 pm CT – (James) PIRATES 7, CARDINALS 1 Hey, cut Shelby Miller a slice of that run allowance! Miller leaves a juicy high fastball to his first batter, Starling Marte, who clobbers it 413 feet for a solo homer.
2:57 pm CT – (James) And now they are three outs away, said Mark Melancon.
3:08 pm CT – (James) Jason Grilli gives up a one-out double off the wall to Matt Adams, who is a large human being. Now the tying run is… still very far from being important.
PIRATES WIN PIRATES WIN 7-1
The Bucs and Cardinals will go back to Pittsburgh with the series all tied up. More to come from Busch Stadium.
