It was another rough night at Busch Stadium for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday. While many of us have shifted our focus towards the gridiron during fall weekends, there is still baseball to be played. The St. Louis Cardinals are already locked into the postseason, but look to maintain their winning ways. They did that tonight by jumping on Pittsburgh early and easily picking up a 13-3 victory.
A six run first inning for St. Louis all but put this game away. Albert Pujols started things off with a two RBI single to left. With the bases loaded, former Bucco Corey Dickerson cleared them with a grand slam to right center. Pirates starter Luis Ortiz only collected two outs on the night before being lifted for Zach Thompson.
Thompson allowed four runs on three hits over 5.1 innings. He would also strike out four and walk one. Junior Fernandez worked the seventh inning, walking three of the six batters he faced. The eighth belonged to Manny Banuelos and he gave up three runs, two earned, on two hits with a walk and strikeout.
Pittsburgh scored their first two runs of the night in the second when Jason Delay plated a pair with a single to shallow left center. Their final run came in the eighth. Ji Hwan Bae reached on a Paul DeJong fielding error to allow Cal Mitchell to score.
Jordan Montgomery got the win for the Cardinals tonight after pitching six innings. He was charged with two runs on four hits, while striking out five batters and walking one. Steven Matz came in for the seventh and the first part of the eighth. That was followed by Jake Woodford who allowed two hits during his 1.2 innings of work.
This was another ugly loss for the Pirates, and one that was clearly out of reach early on. Sunday will mark the final road game for Pittsburgh in 2022 and the pitching matchup looks to be a good one on paper. The Pirates will turn to Roansy Contreras, while St. Louis will counter with their savvy veteran Adam Wainwright. First pitch is slated for 2:15pm.
Record vs. Cardinals: 3-12
Record vs. N.L. Central: 32-40
Record on the Road: 27-53
Overall Record: 59-99
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
