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Adam Wainwright shut the Pirates down in a complete-game effort while David Freese and Matt Adams both homered to propel the St. Louis Cardinals to the NLCS and knock the Pirates out of the 2013 postseason.
Wainwright was flat-out dominant as he allowed only three base runners over his first six innings of work while striking out four before experiencing some bad luck in the seventh inning.
With the Cardinals up 3 – 0 in the seventh with two out, Justin Morneau and Marlon Byrd both hit infield singles setting up first and second. Pedro Alvarez would then come up and hit a grounder to first, but the ball would deflect off of the base and into right field allowing Morneau to score and Byrd to advance to third. The RBI by Alvarez made him the first player in MLB history to record a RBI in his first six postseason games.
The Bucs would start something in the eighth off of Wainwright when Jordy hit a pinch-hit single into right field (the first successful pinch-hit of the series) with one out. Starling Marte (who, along with Neil Walker hit a combined 1-for-38 in the series) would then come up and knock a sharp liner towards right, but Matt Adams was able to snag the ball out of the air and throw to first to double off Mercer on a bang-bang play to end the inning.
They would try one more time down 6 – 1 with two outs in the ninth when Morneau and Byrd hit two out singles (they were a combined 6-for-8 in the game). Wainwright would then strike out Pedro on three straight curveballs to end the game and the season for the Pirates.
Gerrit Cole opposed Wainwright in the game and was just as dominant, except for one pitch that David Freese lined over the left field fence to make it a 2 – 0 score in the second. It came after Cole lost Jon Jay to a walk after getting ahead in the count 1 – 2.
The rest of the Cardinal offense came against the Pirates bullpen when manager, Clint Hurdle pinch-hit Garrett Jones in the sixth inning with a runner on first and no out. Jones hit a first-pitch fastball to the warning track for the first out of the inning.
Justin Wilson (6th inning) and Mark Melancon (8th inning) would allow the other four Cardinal runs by way of Jon Jay and Pete Kozma RBI singles and a Matt Adams monster 2-run homer.
Final Score: Cardinals 6, Pirates 1
Starters Lines
Cole (L, 1 – 1): 5 IN, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K’s, 1 HR. 75 Pitches (51 Strikes)
Wainwright (W, 2 – 0): CG, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K’s. 107 Pitches (74 Strikes)
It was a magical season for the Pirates and their fans as this team not only broke the longest losing streak in North American sports history, but it brought a city together and rekindled it into a baseball town, once again.
Until March 31, 2014.
(Photo Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
