Adding to their recent stretch of games involving rain and extra innings, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in another five-hour marathon game on Saturday night by a score of 6-5 in 14 innings.
“It seems like every single game is going to be tight and we’re going to have to battle and claw our way through everything,” Pirates catcher Chris Stewart said.
Tonight will be the second Sunday Night Baseball telecast for the Pirates in as many years and both have come against the Cardinals. Both games have come at home and the Cardinals won last year’s version.
In tonight’s game, the Pirates will send Francisco Liriano to the mound against Tim Cooney. Liriano is 4-2 against the Cardinals with a 2.38 ERA in 10 career starts. He is 0-1 with a 3.77 ERA in two starts against the Redbirds this season. In his last start, he earned a no-decision against the San Diego Padres, allowing two runs on four hits in six innings.
Cooney is making his fourth career MLB start. In his last start, he received a no-decision, allowing one run on three hits in 5.1 innings against the Chicago Cubs.
You want to talk to me?: For the first time in 13 years, Francisco Cervelli was ejected from a baseball game.
“I play with passion and I play to win games,” Cervelli said. “I’m not disappointed with what I did.”
What home plate umpire Vic Carapazza did, according to crew chief Larry Vanover was toss the Pirates catcher because of his language, something Cervelli denies. Instead, he insisted that he repeated the word no after a Mark Reynolds home run.
The pitch earlier, Reynolds appeared to have swung at strike three however Carapazza ruled the ball foul. After the home run Cervelli was almost immediately ejected, though he did not find out until pitcher A.J. Burnett’s told him upon walking to the mound. Manager Clint Hurdle was ejected as well.
“He made a wrong call,” said Cervelli. “We had a strike out, and after that pitch it was a homer, so what do you expect? I play for my team and give everything for my pitchers. I don’t think it was correct.”
Reynolds, on the other hand, told reporters after yesterday’s game that he seemed to have the same train of thought as Carapazza.
“I heard something and Vic heard something, so he gave me a foul ball and another chance,” Reynolds said.
Hurdle talked today with MLB Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Joe Torre. Though Hurdle would not reveal the nature of the conversation, he did say that Torre has the support of both the umpires and managers.
Seventh inning stretch: It’s no secret that Kolten Wong has been banged up as of late and in last night’s game he was hit by a pitch for the second time this series.
Deolis Guerra hit Wong with an off-speed pitch and the Cardinals second baseman was checked out by training staff while jogging to first base.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny could relate to Wong’s pain and understands that the location of the hit by pitch is a rather painful one.
“I got hit in Pittsburgh by Keith Osik,” said Matheny. “He came in to pitch in a mop up game and he threw something in there really slow and it hit me behind the leg in a similar spot. I couldn’t believe how bad that hurt. Catchers get hit all the time but I couldn’t believe it hurt me that bad.”
Bottom of the ninth: Tonight will be the second consecutive nationally televised game between the Pirates and Cardinals and Hurdle acknowledged that it may have been the first time several people have been able to see the Pirates.
“You only get a chance to make one first impression and a lot of people probably watched us for the first time last night,” Hurdle said. “It’s all part of our story, which has been evolving for the past few years now.”
Last night was the Pirates’ third win of the week when trailing after six innings. They were 1-24 in that situation prior to play this week… According to Elias Sports Bureau, Andrew McCutchen became the third player in the modern era to extend a single-season hitting streak to at least 15 games by hitting a walkoff home run. The other two were Charlie “Piano Legs” Hickman [1902] and Luis Gonzalez [1999]… The Pirates are 13-5 in one-run games at home this season and have won nine of their last 11 games… Josh Bell hit a two-run home run today in today’s All-Star Futures Game.
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