A.J. Burnett didn’t have his stuff, today as he allowed the Cardinals to break out in a seven run third inning in route to a 9 – 1 victory in game one of the NLDS on Thursday afternoon.
No one was able to break the scoreboard through the first two innings. The Cardinals came close in the second, when they had first and second with no out. Burnett then would get two groundouts, the second being a double play to end the inning without damage.
He wouldn’t be as lucky in the third as his control just wasn’t there. He walked Cardinals pitcher, Adam Wainwright to lead off the inning. Matt Carpenter followed with a single and Carlos Beltran hit a towering home run just inside the right field foul pole to make it 3 – 0. It was only the beginning of the damage in the inning as Burnett loaded the bases by way of a Matt Holiday double, Matt Adams HBP and Jon Jay walk. David Freese then chased Burnett with a bases-clearing single to left which was capped off by an error on the throw to the cutoff man that hit Freese allowing the third run to score.
The single would chase Burnett after only 2+ innings as he allowed seven runs while not striking out a single Cardinal.
The Pirate pen of Jeanmar Gomez, Vin Mazzaro and Bryan Morris worked the final seven innings while allowing two runs on three hits.
The Pirates offense didn’t do much against Adam Wainwright over seven innings with Pedro Alvarez producing the only real offense as he hit a towering solo homer to right field in the fifth.
The Pirates only turned out three other hits in the game. Andrew McCutchen and Justin Morneau singles in the fourth with two out and another single by McCutchen in the ninth.
Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal shut the Pirates out over the final two innings to close things out.
Final Score: Cardinals 9, Pirates 1
The Pirates will try to even the series tomorrow afternoon at 1:07 on MLB Network.
(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
