A much needed series split was secured at Busch Stadium this afternoon, as the Cardinals battled the Pirates into the 10th inning for the second consecutive day.
Things didn’t start off smooth, as Hayes led things off with a triple, sneaking it past the diving Nootbaar in CF. A batter later, Reynolds would give the Buccos the early 1-0 lead on a sac-fly to Walker on the first pitch he saw.
The Cardinals quickly answered back, tying the game up at 1-1 in their half of the 1st. Goldy got things rolling with a two out walk to bring up the birthday boy, Nolan Arenado, who singled to LF. Willson Contreras would keep the luck on his side again (finally) with a sharp grounder to Santana (poor fella was a magnet all weekend), who deflected it and allowed Goldy to cross home for the 1-1 tie.
The Pirates regained the 2-1 lead in the top of the 2nd, courtesy of a two out single from Hedges to score Suwinski.
The Pirates would again add to their lead in the top half of the 6th, again with two outs, as a Brendan Donovan fielding error on a Marcano softly hit grounder would score Smith-Njigba to make it 3-1 Pirates.
Mikolas’ day would come to a finish after 5.2IP, scattering 7 hits, 3R/2ER, 2bb/4k on 92 pitches.
The Cardinals answered the two run deficit in their half of the 6th, getting things started with a one out, 115.1mph, double off the bat of Willson Contreras. After Norm failed to move him to 3rd, Noot decided to tie things up himself with his 1st NOOOOT bomb of the season- a 109mph, 382 foot blast off Keller to even things up at 3 a piece.
The pen (Pallante 1IP, Thompson 1.1IP, Gio 1IP, VerHagen 1IP) was excellent in relief of Mik this afternoon, tossing 4.1IP of no ER ball, allowing just one hit. Thompson being the most impressive, as he needed only 7 pitches to record four outs, all 7 pitches being strikes.
The Pirates would grab the 4-3 lead to open up the 10th inning on VerHagen, scoring the Manfred runner on three consecutive ground ball outs.
Will Crowe would get the call for the 10th for the Pirates, trying to earn his 2nd save of the season. After an Arenado fly out to LF, Contreras worked an excellent PA for a walk, extending things to Norm. Norm didn’t waste any time, doubling to the RF corner on the first pitch from Crowe for a ground rule double to tie it 4-4.
O’Neill would pinch-run for Contreras at 3B, with Norm at 2B, and the Pirates would put Noot on base with a free pass to load em up for Jordan Walker, still with one out.
Shelton would elect for a five-man infield, bringing in Bae from CF as the fifth defender behind 2B, and Reynolds and Joe would flip corner spots in the OF. Walker would strikeout looking at a Crowe slider, leaving it up to Tommy Edman to deliver the first walkoff win of the season.
Shelton switched his defense back after the Walker strikeout and Tommy Three Legs would greet it with a first pitch single up the middle to score O’Neill for the 5-4 winner in the 10th inning.
The Cardinals (7-9) welcome the Dbacks (9-7) to town tomorrow evening for a three-game set, getting things started with Jack Flaherty (1-1, 1.76) vs Merrill Kelly (0-2, 2.93). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew
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