(Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sport)
PNC Park – The Cardinals took out their recent frustrations on Charlie Morton and Co. as they put across 13 runs on 17 hits in a 13 – 0 victory over the Bucs on Thursday night to salvage a game in the 5-game set.
Charlie Morton only allowed a run through three innings before falling apart in the fourth. He would load the bases with no out by way of a walk to Allen Craig and singles to Matt Holliday and David Freese. Jon Jay would then be hit by a pitch to score a run. Tony Cruz would then knock one in with a GIDP and Pete Kozma would have an RBI single to make it 4 – 0.
The Cardinals would get their final run off of Morton in the sixth when pitcher, Joe Kelly singled, moved to second on a sac fly, and scored on a Carlos Beltran RBI double. Morton would give up ten hits on the night while walking one. “I gave up a few hard-hit balls and I gave up a few groundball hits and I made some pitches in some situations that I could have executed better,” said Morton. “I think I could have been a little bit smarter.”
Jeanmar Gomez would come in for the seventh and have a worse outing than Morton by allowing seven straight base runners (1 by a Pedro Alvarez error) before recording an out. Vic Black would come in and finish the inning, but not before eight Cardinals crossed the plate. Gomez credited with seven runs (6 earned) and Black credited with one earned run.” I think we lose sight of the fact that they’re human beings and this is the major leagues and we held a team in the bag for four days,” said manager, Clint Hurdle.
The Pirate offense was the direct opposite of the Cardinals as they were only able to muster three hits against Kelly as they all came in the fifth inning. Jose Tabata led off the inning with a single, but was erased by a Jordy Mercer GIDP. Charlie Morton would then single and move to third on a Marte double. Neil Walker would ground out to end the threat.
They would also load the bases with two out in the second when Kelly walked Tony Sanchez, Mercer, and Tabata. Morton would strike out to end that threat.
The Cardinal bullpen would allow two hits over the final three innings to shut things down.
Final Score: Cardinals 13, Pirates 0 “We kept the cat in the bag for four games. The cat got out tonight,” said Hurdle.
The Pirates take 4-of-5 from the Cardinals and leave the series with a 1 ½ game lead in the NL Central.
The Buccos will be next in action tomorrow night to start a 3-game set with the Colorado Rockies. First pitch is set for 7:05.
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