It feels surreal, but here we are on game 162 of the season.
The Pittsburgh Pirates had a chance to avoid 100 losses for another day, but couldn’t hold a lead against the St. Louis Cardinals.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Pirates took an early 1-0 lead on a Miguel Andújar ground out to third base.
JT Brubaker looked good through two innings keeping the Cardinals off the scoresheet. He was on a pitch limit for his final 2022 start, and would only last 2.2 innings on 47 pitches. With one out in the third and bases loaded, the Cardinals pushed across the tying run on a ground out of their own. Then, Albert Pujols line a single to center field to score two runs giving them a 3-1 lead. Bryse Wilson replaced Brubaker and got the final out without anymore damage.
In the bottom half of the third the Pirates offense went to work and took back the lead. Ji-Hwan Bae lead off the inning with a single and moved to third on a Bryan Reynolds ground rule double. Bae scored on a Dakota Hudson wild pitch to make it 3-2 that was followed by a Rodolfo Castro RBI single, Andújar RBI double, and then Jack Suwinski RBI single to make it 5-3. Two more runs would score first on a Ben Gamel RBI single and then Bae came up to bat again to hit a RBI single making it 7-3.
From there Bryse Wilson cruised through the next three innings allowing only a single. In the seventh inning things fell apart. The first three hitters of the inning would all reach base with a run scoring before Wilson was replaced by Duane Underwood Jr. He would strike out the first batter before former Bucco Corey Dickerson hit a two run double to make it 7-6. That was followed by a strike out, then a run scored on an Oneil Cruz throwing error to make it 7-7. Four runs scored to tie it with only two being earned.
Robert Stephenson and David Bednar pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth respectively, while the offense managed to get a runner to second base only once since the six-run, third inning until the ninth. The Pirates had runners on first and second with one out, but Gamel and then pinch hitter Kevin Newman were unable to push the winning run across taking the game to extras.
Chase De Jong took the tenth and let the go ahead run score on a RBI single.
Newman began at second base to begin the Pirates half of the tenth. With one out Cruz hit a 111.5 MPH single that Plinko’d off of 1B Alec Burleson and rolled just past 2B Brendan Donovan. Newman attempted to score on the deflection but was gunned down at home when Donovan quickly retrieved the ball and threw home. The play was reviewed and the call stood. Cruz stole his 11th base and moved to third on a throwing error. That brought up Reynolds who grounded out to first and ended the game for the Pirates 100th loss of the season.
Cardinals @ Pirates
Time: 4:05 PM EST
Pirates Starter: Johan Oviedo (4-3, 3.12)
Cardinals Starter: TBD
Oviedo Notes: Johan Oviedo will get the ball to finish off another long season. He gets to face his former club for the second time in a row. In his previous start against the Cardinals, Oviedo threw 103 pitches over six innings while allowing two earned runs and striking out four. Over Oviedo’s six starts for the Pirates he has had a 3.04 ERA to go with a 3.60 FIP and 4.61 xFIP. While his command escapes him at times, he’s at least shown that he should be in the conversation as a potential starter for the 2023 rotation.
LINEUPS:
Pirates
Game 162.#LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/Qp8P4Q1kDN
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) October 5, 2022
Cardinals
1. Lars Nootbaar (L) DH
2. Tommy Edman (S) SS
3. Nolan Arenado (R) 3B
4. Corey Dickerson (L) LF
5. Juan Yepez (R) 1B
6. Alec Burleson (L) RF
7. Dylan Carlson (S) CF
8. Andrew Knizner (R) C
9. Paul DeJong (R) 2B
