The Pittsburgh Pirates fell by a 6-4 score Saturday afternoon when Matt Carpenter hit a walk-off two-run home run securing the victory for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jeff Locke had another quality start, allowing three runs in six innings of work and coming away with a no-decision.
Locke teammates spotted him a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Carpenter led off the inning with a double, and Locke then walked both Stephen Piscotty and Matt Holliday. Randal Grichuk then singled two runs home.
Locke made one more big mistake allowing a lead-off home run to Piscotty with the first pitch he threw in the third inning.
He settled down after that, retiring 12 consecutive Cardinals batters ending his outing.
Locke threw 56 of 89 pitches for strikes in his outing.
Despite the quality start, Locke almost lost the game.
Adam Wainwright settled down after his first inning and retired 14 consecutive Pirates from the second batter in the second inning until Francisco Cervelli singled with two outs in the sixth.
Wainwright has had a below par season to date, which started with an Opening Day loss to these same Pirates. But he threw 95 pitches in 6.1 innings of work Saturday.
He did his job as did the rest of the Cardinals bullpen, which brought the reliable Trevor Rosenthal in to save the game.
David Freese came in to pinch-hit and received a large ovation from the Cardinals fans. He then reached base by error and John Jaso followed with a walk.
Two batters later, Gregory Polanco’s fielder’s choice advanced Freese to third. Starling Marte was down to his last strike with two outs and hit a ground rule double to score Freese and put Polanco on first base.
This gave Francisco Cervelli a chance to put his team in the lead but instead swung at a first pitch that was grounded out to Yadier Molina.
Pirates manager Clint Hurdle called on A.J. Schugel to keep the game tied in the bottom of the ninth inning. Aledmys Diaz instead greeted him with a single. Two batters later, Carpenter homered to right-center on a 1-2 pitch to end the game.
This loss puts the Pirates at 16-14 on the season and 9-8 against National League Central opponents.
Up next
Gerrit Cole (2-3 3.95 ERA) will face Michael Wacha (2-2 2.65 ERA). Cole is 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA in eight career regular season starts against the Cardinals.
