The Pirates went to extra innings against the Cardinals for the second day in a row. This time around, they couldn’t keep St. Louis off the board in the tenth inning, dropping the game 5-4.
Mitch Keller gave the Pirates a solid outing, going six innings with three runs allowed. Keller had a 3-1 lead going into the sixth inning, and gave up two runs on a home run by Lars Nootbaar. This continues a trend of Keller pitching well, but running out of steam during the end of his outing. That hasn’t hurt him every time, but cost him today.
The Pirates got on the board first with a sacrifice fly by Bryan Reynolds, scoring Ke’Bryan Hayes in the first. Hayes led off the game with a triple. They added runs in the second on an Austin Hedges single, and in the sixth when Tucupita Marcano reached on a fielding error, scoring Canaan Smith-Njigba.
Duane Underwood Jr., Colin Holderman, and David Bednar all pitched scoreless innings, but the Pirates couldn’t add another run, sending the game to extras.
The Pirates scored in the tenth inning after two groundouts scored Andrew McCutchen, who was the runner on second.
Wil Crowe came on in the bottom of the tenth, getting Nolan Arenado to line out to left. After walking Willson Contreras, he gave up a ground rule double to Nolan Gorman, tying the score and putting the winning run on third.
The Pirates responded by putting Ji-Hwan Bae, their center fielder, at second base, giving them a five man infield. They shifted the outfield to left for Jordan Walker, leaving right field completely open. Walker tried putting a few pitches to right, but ended up striking out looking for the second out.
Tommy Edman hit a two out hard grounder through the right side, bringing in the winning run for the Cardinals.
The Pirates are 9-7 after splitting the four game series with St. Louis. They head to Colorado next to start a three game series tomorrow.
