The Cardinals scored four on a pair of two runs singles from Matt Carpenter and Yadier Molina. They both finished with two of the six hits by the Cardinals, who increased their lead over the second-place Pirates to 5 1/2 games. Pittsburgh (50-35) had its five-game winning streak snapped.
Advertisement
Carlos Martinez pitched seven and a third shutout innings and led the Cardinals to a 4-1 win over the Pirates Thursday night in Pittsburgh, PA. Only one of the runs was earned because shortstop Jordy Mercer booted pinch-hitter Kolten Wong’s grounder for an error with none out.
The 23-year-old right-hander also made a strong pitch to be selected to his first All-Star Game, which will be played Tuesday at Great American Ball Park. All-Star Andrew McCutchen kept Pittsburgh from being shut out as he led off the ninth inning with his 11th home run of the year. The 28-year-old is 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in his last six starts, allowing two earned runs or fewer in each turn. That extended his career-best hitting streak to 16 games.
That was all the Redbirds would need as Trevor Rosenthal closed the door with his 26th save of the season.
Due to the highly-anticipated nature of this series, Tyler Waite – Co-Editor of Rumbunter – and I are going to put out mini-podcast episodes with our rapid reaction after each game in the Pirates/Cardinals series.
Locke was pulled for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fifth.
He was locked in a battle with Pirates starter Jeff Locke until the fifth inning when the offense came around. “This is a good team we’re playing”. Pirates LF Starling Marte missed a fourth consecutive game because of a strained left oblique.
Advertisement
The 56 and 30 Cardinals face the Pirates again Friday in game 2 of their 4 game set.
