The Pittsburgh Pirates fall to the St. Louis Cardinals in extra-innings despite scoring first in the top of the tenth inning.
Wil Crowe came in the bottom of the tenth, and after an automatic double from Nolan Gorman to tie it at 4-4, Tommy Edman hit a single up the middle with the bases loaded, and the Cardinals pull it out with a 5-4 victory.
One positive for the Pirates is they split a four-game series against the Cardinals despite suffering heartbreak in game four.
The Pirates got their offense going in the first inning when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a diving ball to outfielder Lars Nootbaar. Nootbaar failed to make a diving catch, and Hayes ended up on third base with his first triple of the season.
Bryan Reynolds, on the very next pitch, against Miles Mikolas (0-1 8.10 ERA), hit a deep fly ball to Jordan Walker, allowing Hayes to score easily, making it an early 1-0 Pirates’ lead.
In the second inning, the Pirates scored again after Jack Suwinski got a base hit and advanced to second from a slow-rolling Rodolfo Castro grounder.
Austin Hedges smacked a 1-1 sinker to left field, scoring Suwinski easily. The Pirates led 2-1 at the time.
Both offenses were held at bay until the Pirates got a lucky run in the sixth inning when Tucupita Marcano hit a dribbler to Gold Glover Brendan Donovan, and Donovan couldn’t handle it.
Canaan Smith-Njigba scored on the play, and the Pirates took a 3-1 lead.
Keller (1-0, 3.80 ERA) was very solid throughout his start against the Cardinals, despite not getting the swing-and-miss stuff Sunday afternoon against the Cardinals.
Keller had to battle and limited hard-hit balls for the most part on his cutter (84.2 average EV) and four-seam (85.7 average EV). Where Keller struggled a bit was with his sinker.
There was an average of 95 mph EV on Keller’s sinker, with a total of 12 swings, five balls put in play, five foul balls, and two whiffs.
Keller’s final line read six innings pitched, seven hits, three earned runs, two walks, and three strikeouts on 91 pitches (60 strikes).
The Cardinals’ offense answered the Pirates’ rather quickly in the first inning, with Wilson Contreras hitting a ball that deflected off of Carlos Santana, allowing Paul Goldschmidt to score from second.
The Cardinals tied it up at 1-1.
It wasn’t until the sixth inning that the Cardinals would score again. Nootbaar blasted a two-run shot, which was his first homer of the season.
Keller left a hanging changeup in the inside and high, and Nootbaar made him pay. The Cardinals tied it up again, at three apiece.
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