Defensive miscues doom Pittsburgh Pirates in 4-2 loss to St. Louis Cardinals

Multiple defensive miscues ultimately doomed an otherwise decent start by Gerrit Cole as the Pittsburgh Pirates fell 4-2 to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. Cole saw his record fall to 14-6 but did strike out six over five and one third innings of work, but also surrendered four runs (three earned).

The Cardinals got two runs in the third inning because of the aforementioned mistakes by the defense. Pedro Alvarez didn’t have hit foot on the bag to receive a throw which allowed an infield single by Jhonny Peralta to load the bases. Clint Hurdle elected to challenge the ruling and the command center in New York confirmed it as safe. On the very next play Alvarez was unable to handle the throw by Neil Walker and the first two runs of the game scored.

In the top of the fourth inning Andrew McCutchen got one of the runs back with his 18th home run of the year, a solo shot to right field. The Pirates had a chance to keep adding runs by Cole ended the inning by striking out with the bases loaded. In the fifth inning Randal Grichuk misplayed the ball and it rolled to the wall, allowing McCutchen to make it to third and Polanco to score and tie the game.

St. Louis took the lead in the sixth inning off of a triple by Yadier Molina that brought in Grichuk. Molina’s triple was similar to McCutchen’s, in that outfielder (in this case, Polanco) misplayed the ball and let it get behind him. Stephen Piscotty followed that up with a single to score Molina and extend the Cardinals lead by two. Cole was removed in favor of Joakim Soria, who was able to get the last two outs of the inning.

Antonio Bastardo and Joe Blanton worked the seventh and eighth innings for the Pirates, allowing no runs and striking out three between them. In the eighth inning Molina hit his 20th double of the season and then stole third. Cervelli made a good throw to Ramirez, but he did not put his glove on the ground but instead attempted a swipe tag that missed and Molina was safe.

The Pirates were unable to score any runs off of Kevin Siegrist (who pitched the seventh and eighth) and Trevor Rosenthal, who earned his 35th save of the season. The loss puts the Pirates at 65-46, now seven games back of the Cardinals heading into the final game of the series.

What Stood Out

In no particular order the defensive mistakes by Alvarez, Polanco and Ramirez almost directly gave Cole the loss. Alvarez continues to look shaky at first base and the issue was magnified with the two bad plays back to back in the third inning. Polanco’s misplay in sixth got the ball rolling for the St. Louis offense and they were able to get just enough runs to take the middle game of this important series.

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