Pittsburgh, which closes the regular season with its final 10 games against the Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and St. Louis, will turn to rookie Jameson Taillon in search of a spark on Wednesday.TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), ROOT (Pittsburgh) PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Mike Leake (9-9, 4.56 ERA) vs. Pirates RH Jameson Taillon (3-4, 3.25) Leake has been out over two weeks due to a bout with shingles and is hoping to pick up right where he left off.
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That trend continued Tuesday night, when he blew his fifth save of the season in spectacular fashion, giving up four runs on three home runs with two outs in the ninth inning to hand the St. Louis Cardinals a 9-7 victory at PNC Park.
Kang hit a drive deep into the bullpens in left-center off rookie Alex Reyes (1-1) for his 17th homer and third in two games.
The Pirates came in reeling during their longest skid in two years, one that dropped them to the fringe of playoff contention.
“Matt Carpenter is a really good hitter, faced him a number of times”, Watson said.
In the ninth, Jung Ho Kang hit his second solo homer of the game for Pittsburgh, but Seung Kwan Oh closed out the win to keep the Cardinals one game up on NY for the second Wild Card spot.
Molina would later score in the inning on a Randal Grichuk single, tacking an unearned run on Williams’ line.
“We hugged and shed a few tears together”, Williams said. His 3.22 ERA is the highest since his first full year in the majors in 2012. “It’s good to get the win, most importantly, and end this losing streak”. Grichuk followed two batters later with a two-run shot off Watson (2-4), and Peralta piled on with a solo homer as St. Louis held on to the second wild card in the NL. He grew stronger as the start progressed but needed 95 pitches to complete five innings of two-run ball.
Yoenis Cespedes hit a go-ahead two-run homer in seventh, one of four home runs hit by NY in a victory over Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park.
Mike Leake went 4 1/3 innings in his first start for the Cardinals since August 21 after being sidelined by the shingles virus. The righty had kept the Pirates’ run to one throughout the first three innings while grabbing five strikeouts.
“I’ve been in this situation before where you give up some and then you sit around for a couple days”, said Watson, who picked up his 11th save. “There’s no one else I’d rather share this moment with than my dad”.
Entering in the sixth with a 3-2 lead, Trevor Williams, in his Major League Baseball debut, delivered a pitch to surefire Hall of Famer Yadier Molina that would result in a play botched by newly inserted right fielder Adam Frazier. Right fielder Adam Frazier had the Molina fly ball until taking his eye of the ball at the last second before the ball grazed the thumb of his glove and fell to the ground allowing Molina to get to second base. In turn, Pittsburgh wasn’t hesitant to put the Korean-born slugger on the disabled list following an injury against the Miami Marlins. His wild throw to second on an attempted double play gave Pittsburgh life.
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RHP Neftali Feliz was expected to play catch as part of his rehab from right arm discomfort, but he did not. Pirates C Elias Diaz had leg surgery for cellulitis (bacterial infection).
