With one out in the top of the ninth and Cardinals trailing 3-2, Daniel Descalso lifted a can of corn pop fly to left field. Instead of the Cards being down to their final out of the game, Pirates’ left fielder, Starling Marte, nonchalantly took his eye off the ball a fraction too soon, allowing the ball to trickle out of his glove and Descalso advancing to second on the play.
Pirates’ closer Mark Melancon did his best to put his teammates miscue behind him. After striking out Matt Carpenter for the second out of the inning, which should have ended the game, Melancon walked Carlos Beltran on four pitches to get to the hottest hitter in the league with runners in scoring position, Allen Craig. Craig, who is hitting a league best .469 with RISP, delivered an opposite field single to tie the game and the Cardinals eventually went on to 4-3 in 14 innings on an Adron Chambers’ RBI single.
The loss was the fourth straight for the Pirates, all on the road, and cut their National League Central Division lead to two games.
Not all was bad for the Buccos on Tuesday night. The game couldn’t of started any better for Pittsburgh, who put a two spot on the scoreboard in the top of the first on Andrew McCutchens’ opposite field home run off of St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright. The home run was the 17th long ball of the season for McCutchen.
In the second inning, Jordy Mercer followed suit, belting his fifth home run of the season over the left field wall giving the Pirates an early 3-0 lead. But that would be the last bit of offense Pittsburgh would get for the remaining four hours of the game.
For a while the three run lead was holding up thanks in part to the performance of Charlie Morton on the mound, Coming into the game, Morton was a career 2-8 against the Cardinals with a 6.77 ERA but all that was forgotten with his performance on Tuesday night.
Morton worked through the Cardinals lineup without allowing a run through the first five innings. With the lead still 3-0, he started to run into some trouble in the sixth.
The sinker-baller was unlucky in the sixth when he induced three straight ground balls to the meat of the Cardinals lineup but all found different holes in the defense. With the bases loaded and no outs, Morton delivered at the time the pitch of the game, riding a pitch on the hands of David Freese, breaking his bat in the process of a 6-3 double play. Craig, who started the inning with a single, came around to score on the play.
Morton had a chance to escape the nightmare inning with only allowing a run, but another timely hit with runners in scoring position by the Cardinals erased that thought. With two outs, Jon Jay laced a single to bring the Cards to within one.
Both teams missed numerous scoring opportunities in the innings to follow. In the game, the Pirates were 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners on base.
Now the before-mentioned gaffe by Marte comes into effect. After missing the fly ball and allowing the Cardinals to tie the game, it was up to the Pirates to come through in extra innings.
They had their chances, but were unable to capitalize. In the tenth, they had a runner on third with two outs but McCutchen grounded out to short to end the inning. In the bottom half, the Cardinals had runners on second and third with one out but Vin Mazzaro was able to work out of trouble, striking out Pete Kozma for the second out before getting Descalso to pop up to McCutchen.
The Pirates had two runners on again in the eleventh but were unable to come through. In the bottom of the eleventh, Pittsburgh completed a rare feat that could have changed the momentum of the game. With runners on the corners, Clint Hurdle brought Josh Harrison over from right field to play the fifth infielders spot.
That move paid off as Cardinals’ pitcher Seth Maness grounded into the 6-9-3 inning ending double play.
The Pirates had another excellent chance to take the lead in the thirteenth when McCutchen led the inning off with a single, stole second and advanced to third on the Pedro Alvarez infield single. But with runners on the corners and no outs, the Buccos still found a way to not score, after Russell Martin grounded out to short with a drawn in infield and Harrison grounded into a double play.
With the game entering the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Cardinals thought it would be a good time to send the fans at Busch Stadium home happy. With one out, Jay recorded his fourth hit of the game, stole second and game around to score the game-winning run on Chambers’ hit.
Game notes: Highly-touted prospect Andrew Lambo made his much anticipated debut for the Pirates. He went 0-3 before being lifted late in the game…To make room for Lambo, the Pirates optioned Alex Presley back to AAA Indianapolis.
Today’s game: The Pirates will look to snap their four-game losing streak tonight in the middle game of the series against the Cardinals. Francisco Liriano (12-5, 2.83) will look to bounce back from a rough outing in Colorado for the Pirates. Shelby Miller (11-7, 2.89) will toe the rubber for the Cardinals
