Saturday’s game started off looking like it was going to be a high scoring battle, but then quickly settled.
Ke’Bryan Hayes led off the game by hammering a hanging curveball 440 FT to center field for his first home run of the season to give the Pittsburgh Pirates an early 1-0 lead.
The St. Louis Cardinals didn’t wait long to counter, as Pirates starter Roansy Contreras gave up hits to the first three batters he faced, and by the end of the inning the Cardinals had a 2-1 lead.
In the third inning, Cardinals’ starter Steven Matz walked the bases loaded, before then walking in the tying run. From there, it turned into another pitching duel that has so far been the case in the first three games.
The Pirates hitters weren’t really able to muster much — once again — against the left-handed starter. Even with Matz issuing five walks, the offense managed only three hits while striking out six times.
Contreras settled down after the first, and ended up throwing six innings. As should be expected, he leaned heavily on his fastball-slider combo, throwing the two pitches a combined 70 times out of 87 pitches.
In the fifth inning, the Cardinals had a runner on third with one out. Contreras got Paul Goldschmidt to line out to Hayes, who made a fantastic individual play to then step on third after catching the liner for an inning ending double-play.
Contreras finished strong, whiffing all three hitters he faced in the sixth, and ending his night with a 2-2 tie.
The Pirates looked to push across a run in the seventh when Jason Delay led off the inning with a double. Unfortunately he decided to try and make it to third on a Hayes groundball, and was subsequently thrown out rather easily. Hayes then proceeded to get picked off of first base, and the inning ended shortly thereafter on a Bryan Reynolds strike out.
Rob Zastryzny came in for the bottom half of the seventh, and it quickly got out of hand. Battling to find the strike zone, Zastryzny ended up leaving the game with only one out after walking the bases loaded. In came Robert Stephenson who did his best to limit the damage by striking out the first batter he faced, but then walked the next batter to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. Stephenson was able to keep it a one-run game getting the next batter to ground out.
To the eighth, Conner Joe singled with two outs, and the Cardinals bench coach — manager Carlos Marmol had been tossed earlier in the game — decided to bring in hard-throwing closer Ryan Helsley for a four out save. Rodolfo Castro would have none of it, and sawed off a 100 MPH fastball down the left field line, that would tie the game at three with Joe wheeling around the bases.
Colin Holderman stepped to the mound, and finished the Cardinals in quick order on only 11 pitches and two strike outs. David Bednar took the ninth, in a tie game, and himself sat down the hitters on 11 pitches with one strike out and sent the game to extras.
Andrew McCutchen got to face Jordan Hicks once again, and this time decided to go with only sliders. Hicks threw seven sliders, all at the top of the zone, and on the seventh Cutch got ahold of it for a two-run shot to left field — scoring the extra innings runner on second. Knowing that no lead is ever too safe, Joe tripled with one out, and was once again knocked in by Castro, who hit lined a single off of Goldschmidt’s glove.
With a three run lead, and Bednar having already been used, Derek Shelton went with Dauri Moreta to finish things off. He had another eventful and heart skipping inning, but was able to close it out for a 6-3 win, and assuring at least a series split in St. Louis.
