Someone should have sent a memo to the Pirates that the marathon was supposed to take place in Pittsburgh, not St. Louis.
For the third straight game of the series, the Pirates (12-13) took the Cardinals (18-6) to extra innings before falling, this time a 3-2 loss in the 14th inning off a Kolten Wong walk-off home run. This was the fourth straight game against the Cardinals the Pirates lost in walk-off fashion.
Pirates starter Vance Worley was strong in defeat as he went six strong innings, struck out five and allowed four hits with his only run being a Matt Carpenter home run in the fourth inning.
The Pirates offense was pretty quiet again before a Jung-ho Kang led off the top of the ninth inning with his first Major League home run to tie the game at one. Kang finished the day 2-for-5.
Pedro Alvarez, who walked four times earlier in the game, launched a solo home run in the 12th inning off Samuel Tuivailala to put the Pirates in position to close out the game against the bottom of the lineup.
Radhames Liz got into quick trouble in the bottom of the 12th with two singles and a walk, and an infield single that bounced off Josh Harrison’s glove scored Pete Kozma to tie the score at 2. Liz took the loss after giving up the Wong home run.
The Pirates managed to avoid disaster a few times off poor defensive plays in the field, including misplayed fly balls by Kang, Jordy Mercer and Gregory Polanco, but they couldn’t do anything about Wong’s final blast into the right field seats.
Josh Harrison had a day to forget as he went 0-for-7 and saw his batting average drop to .188 on the season.
The Pirates return home to start a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds Tuesday night.
