MLB

Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals

· Major League Baseball
Pittsburgh Pirates
72-81, 34-41 Away
Final
3 - 2
St. Louis Cardinals
77-76, 42-36 Home

Grandal homers, Gonzales gets an RBI single in the 8th to push Pittsburgh past St. Louis 3-2

Pirates starter Luis Ortiz allowed two runs on five hits and had seven strikeouts in six innings.

“My whole focus today was to get weak contact, and the strikeouts showed up,” Ortiz said via an interpreter. “That was not in my mind to strike people out, but making quality pitches, that’s what happened and we’re pretty happy.”

Carmen Mlodzinski (4-5) and Dennis Santana each tossed a scoreless inning, and Aroldis Chapman pitched the ninth to earn his 10th save in 15 chances. It was Chapman's 331st career save moving him past John Wetteland for the 16th most in major league history.

“He's had a heck of a career,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He's making a very strong case to be a Hall of Famer. He's the all-time left-handed leader as a reliever in strikeouts. This guy just continues to get better with age. He's very impressive.”

Cardinals starter Erick Fedde allowed one run on four hits and struck out three.

“There's still some room to improve on my movement," Fedde said. ”I felt like things were really late today just in the sense of kind of the swings I was getting. They seemed a little more defensive than they have been, and to that means my stuff's going to be late and a little harder to see. That's a great sign."

St. Louis (77-76) fell to eight games behind the New York Mets (85-68) in the National League wild-card race, and will be mathematically eliminated from postseason contention with either one more loss or a Mets win.

Gonzales singled up the middle off Ryan Fernandez who entered the game after JoJo Romero (7-3) walked pinch hitter Connor Joe with two outs in the top of the eighth.

“Someone told me about how DJ Lemahieu kind of takes every AB the same, how it's the most important AB no matter what the count, no matter what the situation,” Gonzales said. “I just try to do that the best that I can so every single at-bat I have kind of feels the same. Obviously, emotions get going, but I'm just trying my best to just make every single AB as important as the next and trying to lock in and not trying to do too much.”

Grandal hit his eighth home run of the season to right field in the seventh inning to tie the game 2-2.

Brendan Donovan hit an RBI single to left in the fourth inning to tie the game 1-1, then drove in another run with a double to the left-center field gap in the sixth inning to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead. He now has a hit in all 18 home games he has played against Pittsburgh to start his career.

Gonzales lined a triple to right field that Jordan Walker had trouble corralling and scored on Bryan De La Cruz’s sacrifice fly to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.

TRANSACTION

Pittsburgh purchased the contract of RHP Isaac Mattson from Triple-A Indianapolis. Mattson has not appeared in a major league game since pitching for Baltimore on Oct. 1, 2021, in Toronto. RHP Jake Woodford was designated for assignment.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: C Endy Rodríguez (right elbow surgery) batted third as the designated hitter for Indianapolis in a rehab appearance at St. Paul.

UP NEXT

Pirates: RHP Mitch Keller (11-10, 3.87 ERA) is scheduled to face Reds RHP Nick Martinez (9-6, 3.37 ERA) in the opener of a three-game series in Cincinnati on Friday night.

Cardinals: RHP Kyle Gibson (8-7, 4.11 ERA) will oppose Guardians RHP Ben Lively (12-9, 3.87 ERA) in the opener of St. Louis’ final home series of the season on Friday night.

How can I watch Pittsburgh Pirates vs. St. Louis Cardinals?
  • TV Channel: Pirates at Cardinals 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
  • Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Cardinals: 62.0%
Pirates: 38.0%
*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

9th Inning Pagés grounded into fielder's choice to second, Donovan out at second.
9th Inning Walker flied out to right.
9th Inning Baker flied out to left.
9th Inning Baker hit for Nootbaar
9th Inning Donovan singled to center.
9th Inning Chapman relieved Santana

Statistics

https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/pit.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originPIT https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/mlb/500/stl.png&h=100&scale=crop&w=100&location=originSTL
1 Games Played 1
1 Team Games Played 1
0 Hit By Pitch 0
17 Ground Balls 12
4 Strikeouts 9
3 Runs Batted In 2
0 Sacrifice Hit 0
8 Hits 6
2 Stolen Bases 1
3 Walks 3
0 Catcher Interference 0
3 Runs 2
1 Ground Into Double Play 1
1 Sacrifice Flies 0
33 At Bats 32
1 Home Runs 0
0 Grand Slam Home Runs 0
14 Runners Left On Base 13
1 Triples 0
1 Game Winning RBIs 0
0 Intentional Walks 0
1 Doubles 1
13 Fly Balls 11
0 Caught Stealing 0
133 Pitches 128
0 Games Started 0
1 Pinch At Bats 1
1 Pinch Hits 0
0.0 Player Rating 0.0
1 Is Qualified 1
1 Is Qualified In Steals 1
14 Total Bases 7
37 Plate Appearances 35
162.0 Projected Home Runs 0.0
3 Extra Base Hits 1
4.5 Runs Created 1.5
.242 Batting Average .188
1.000 Pinch Hit Average .000
.424 Slugging Percentage .219
.333 Secondary Average .156
.297 On Base Percentage .257
.722 OBP Pct + SLG Pct .476
1.3 Ground To Fly Ball Ratio 1.1
4.5 Runs Created Per 27 Outs 1.5
29.5 Batter Rating 17.0
33.0 At Bats Per Home Run 0.0
1.00 Stolen Base Percentage 1.00
3.59 Pitches Per Plate Appearance 3.66
.182 Isolated Power .031
0.75 Walk To Strikeout Ratio 0.33
.081 Walks Per Plate Appearance .086
.091 Secondary Average Minus Batting Average -.031
6.0 Runs Produced 4.0
1.0 Runs Ratio 1.0
0.5 Patience Ratio 0.3
0.3 Balls In Play Average 0.3
81.3 MLB Rating 68.3
0.0 Offensive Wins Above Replacement 0.0
0.0 Wins Above Replacement 0.0

Game Information

Busch Stadium

Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 32,194 | Capacity:

2024 National League Central Standings

TEAM W L PCT GB STRK
Milwaukee 93 69 .574 - L1
St. Louis 83 79 .512 10 W1
Chicago 83 79 .512 10 L1
Cincinnati 77 85 .475 16 W1
Pittsburgh 76 86 .469 17 L1
Full Standings