ST. LOUIS — There are many, as Pirates manager Clint Hurdle likes to say, “beautiful things” about a pennant race.
Foremost is the privilege of even participating in one.
“We get to do this, we’ve earned the opportunity to play these meaningful games based on what we’ve done the entire season,” Hurdle elaborated.
Another attraction is that a pennant race is a test of will, talent — and endurance. It is a gauntlet run with the acceptance that there will be mishaps, some major. No one gets through it fit. But the fittest survive.
The Pirates’ latest setback — a series-sweeping 9-2 Sunday loss to the Cardinals from which their hottest starting pitcher, Charlie Morton, was ousted in 1 2/3 innings by a foot injury — thus was a natural part of the ordeal.
Michael Wacha, doing his best impression of Adam Wainwright, hurled seven shutout innings of two-hit ball to hand the Bucs a fourth consecutive loss that dropped them 1 1/2 games behind St. Louis in the National League Central.
Pain, both emotional and physical, is integral to a pennant race. Morton felt both kinds on Sunday. Coming in with four straight wins and a 1.74 ERA for his prior six starts, the right-hander already trailed 4-0 when his 46th pitch went wild, allowing another run to score.
It also turned out to be his last pitch, as the other kind of pain entered the picture: Within minutes, Morton was walking off the mound with what subsequently was announced as discomfort in his left foot.
Better, at least, than discomfort in his right arm, which he had recently rehabilitated from Tommy John surgery.
The Cardinals remained relentless. After having drawn first blood in the series’ first two games, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in both, they leaned on the accelerator even harder Sunday.
They got two in the first, when it should have only been one, on Carlos Beltran’s sacrifice fly. But another scored when Neil Walker, upended at second by Matt Holliday’s typical hard takeout slide, made a low throw to first trying for an inning-ending double play. When the ball skipped by the bag,Jon Jay scored from third for a 2-0 lead.
St. Louis added three more in the second, on back-to-back RBI doubles by Matt Carpenter and Jay before Morton’s fateful wild pitch made it 5-0.
Stolmy Pimentel, the emergency replacement for Morton, put up two zeros before the Cardinals’ four-run fifth. He gave up David Freese’s run-scoring single, then Vin Mazzaro gave up a two-run single to Wacha and Jared Hughes allowed an RBI single to Holliday.
The Bucs had only one previous look at Wacha, who spiced two hitless innings against them with four strikeouts in a relief appearance on Aug. 14.
Wacha reinforced that first impression, with seven shutout innings of two-hit ball. He walked and fanned two each.
