Pittsburgh Pirates Lose In Extra Innings To St. Louis Cardinals
By Larry Snyder
The Pittsburgh Pirates got six scoreless innings from A.J. Burnett Friday, but it was not enough as the Bucs lost 2-1 in 10 innings to the Cardinals in St. Louis.
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Clint Hurdle‘s squad has gone 4-3 on this 10-day, nine-game road trip. Their record stands at 12-11 and they are 6-7 on the road this season. The Jolly Roger crew was 9-14 after 23 games last season.
Burnett kept the Cards off the scoreboard as he fired 61 of his pitches for strikes. He permitted just two hits, struck out seven and walked three over six innings. The veteran righthander passed Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax to claim 42nd place on the all-time career strikeout list with 2,397.
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Arkansas native helped his own cause as he went 1-for-2 at the plate, and drove in the Pirates only run in the sixth. Burnett sent a ground ball single to center off Cardinals starter Lance Lynn that scored Francisco Cervelli.
The Redbirds brought the game even in the seventh. With two-out and the bases loaded, pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds singled on a ground ball to second baseman Neil Walker that drove in Jhonny Peralta. Bucs’ lefthander Tony Watson came on to record the final out of the inning.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Cards seized victory in the tenth off righthander Rob Scahill when with the bases loaded and two out, Matt Adams singled on a line drive to left that brought Jon Jay home with the winning run.
Lynn gave up one earned run on four hits over seven innings for St. Louis. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound righthander walked only one batter and struck out 10. He delivered 68 of his 101 pitches for strikes.
Seth Maness answered the call to the bullpen and sat the Bucs down in order in the eighth. Trevor Rosenthal came on in the ninth and hurled 13 of his 19 pitches for strikes. After Matt Belisle got two out in the tenth, Randy Choate came on to record the final out and pick up the win.
For the Pirates, Cervelli went 2-for-4 at the plate, and Sean Rodriguez, who entered the game in the seventh, was a perfect 2-for-2.
Up Next: The Pirates and Cards meet in the middle game of their three-game set Saturday. The first pitch is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. St. Louis (16-6) will send righthander John Lackey (1-1, 4.21 ERA) to the hill and the Bucs will counter with Francisco Liriano (1-1, 2.22 ERA).
The 31-year-old will be making his fifth start of the season. His last start was the 200th of his career and it was an 8-0 win against the Diamondbacks Sunday in Arizona. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound lefthander is 4-1 with a 1.98 ERA in 8 career starts against St. Louis. The game will be on ROOT Sports Pittsburgh.
From The Clipboard: The time of the game was 3:31 and 40,912 were in the seats at Busch Stadium…It was Cervelli’s first time to appear in a contest versus the Cards…The Pirates went 2-8 at Busch Stadium in 2014 and have gone 5-14 the past two seasons. Their lone series win was in April 2013.
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