The Pittsburgh Pirates began their final series of the season on Monday night, as the welcomed the St. Louis Cardinals to PNC Park for the first of three games. St. Louis is locked into the playoffs, so one would expect most of their everyday players getting a rest over these three days. Pittsburgh is in a battle with the Cincinnati Reds for fourth place in the Central Division.
This game was scoreless through five innings, but in the sixth Albert Pujols hit his 703rd career home run, a two-run shot, to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. It would come off of Pirates starter Mitch Keller. Keller pitched five innings, allowing two runs on five hits, with five strikeouts and two walks. Former Bucco Jose Quintana started for St. Louis and worked just three innings.
Pittsburgh jumped on the board in the sixth on an RBI double by Bryan Reynolds. Jack Suwinski tied the game in the eighth with a 380 ft. solo home run to right. In the bottom of the ninth, Cardinals relief pitcher Giovanny Gallegos would strike out one batter, but walk the bases loaded to put the go ahead run 90 ft. away. JoJo Romero entered the game and preceded to walk Oneil Cruz, giving the Pirates a 3-2 victory.
This was definitely a crazy ending to this game, as you don’t see four batters walked in the bottom of the ninth to earn a win very often. The Pujols homer also allowed fans to see a bit of history as he moved up both the home run and RBI lists tonight. Game two of this three game series is set for Tuesday night at 6:35pm.
Record vs. Cardinals: 5-12
Record vs. N.L. Central: 34-40
Record at Home: 33-46
Overall Record: 61-99
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
