The St. Louis Cardinals, led by Paul Goldschmidt, handed the Pittsburgh Pirates their eighth loss in a row, beating their divisional foes by a 3-1 score in the first game of the teams’ doubleheader at Busch Stadium.
JT Brubaker started for Pittsburgh, giving up three runs (two earned) on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts in 5.1 innings. His mound opponent, Matthew Liberatore, gave up just three hits and two walks in his five innings on the bump.
Goldschmidt broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the third with a two run homerun, his 14th of the season to center field, giving the Cards a 2-0 lead. A ground ball by Goldschmidt in the fourth inning resulted in Yadier Molina crossing the plate for the third run of the game, and St. Louis looked to be in control.
Yu Chang’s solo homerun to center field got the Bucs on the board in the seventh, making it a 3-1 score. In the eighth, Pittsburgh got the tying run to the plate. But with Bryan Reynolds on first and one out, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Daniel Vogelbach struck out swinging to end the threat.
Similarly, the tying run came to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but Cal Mitchell lined out to end the game.
The Pirates need to find a way to end this losing streak. This seemingly happens to this team every season – one huge slide that wrecks the entire season. They will look to split today’s doubleheader when they send Bryse Wilson to the mound against Miles Mikolas for St. Louis.
Record vs. Cardinals: 1-7
Record vs. N.L. Central: 9-21
Record on the Road: 11-19
Overall Record: 24-36
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
