Pittsburgh Pirates Unable to Sweep Cardinals, Fall 3-0

The Pittsburgh Pirates took on the St. Louis Cardinals Sunday afternoon looking for their first sweep of the 2021 season

Entering Sunday afternoon’s start  Steven Brault had thrown 14.2 innings and allowed only 3 earned runs (1.84 ERA) but both he and the Pittsburgh Pirates were winless in his first three outings. Brault pitched 4 innings Sunday afternoon (81 pitches), giving up 1 earned run on 5 hits. He walked 2 and struck out 1.

A bit of poor luck added to the rocky start to this afternoon’s game as Brault struck out Tommy Edman to begin the game but Paul Goldschmidt then lined a ball off the third base bag for a double and eventually came around to score on a Yadier Molina seeing-eye ground ball through the left side.

The poor luck for Brault continued to begin the bottom of the 4th inning as Lars Nootbaar led off with what looked to be a flyout to left field but newly-acquired Yoshi Tsutsugo misplayed the ball and allowed Nootbaar to coast into second with a leadoff double. After a walk to Edmundo Sosa, Harrison Bader hit a sacrifice fly to right to advance Nootbaar to third. Adam Wainwright then came to the plate and laid down a sacrifice bunt but Brault made an incredible barehand play to get the out at home. Tommy Edman then popped out to end the inning so despite the mishap to begin the inning, Brault was able to work around it to keep the Cardinals off the board.

Adam Wainwright Dominates

Adam Wainwright (11-7, 3.26 ERA) took the hill for the Cardinals Sunday afternoon after throwing a complete game 2-hit shutout against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on August 11th. The 39-year old was once again absolutely dominant. Wainwright threw 8 scoreless innings this afternoon, striking out 9 and allowing just 2 hits, one of them being a bunt single in the second inning. The Pirates have not beaten Adam Wainwright since April 3rd, 2016 and the long-time Cardinal is showing no signs of slowing down in his 16th big league season.

Kyle Keller Struggles

Kyle Keller entered the game in the bottom of the 5th and promptly gave up a 414-foot home run to Paul Goldschmidt on his second pitch. Keller then hit Tyler O’Neill but was able to get out of the inning without any further damage.

He remained in the game to begin the bottom of the 6th and hit Edmundo Sosa to lead off the inning but then struck out Harrison Bader who interfered with Michael Perez trying to throw out Sosa at second so both outs were recorded. Keller then walked Adam Wainwright who doubled earlier in the game but Edman flew out to end the inning.

Keller has struggled for the entirety of the 2021 season, pitching to an ERA of 7.61 thus far. August, in particular, has been alarming for the 28-year old as he has surrendered 10 earned runs in just 8 innings of work.

Cardinals Add to Lead in 8th

Anthony Banda came on in relief in the bottom of the 8th and allowed back-to-back singles to Molina and Nootbaar to begin the inning. After a fielder’s choice from Edmundo Sosa, Bader singled in the Cardinals’ third run of the day. Banda retired both pinch-hitter Paul Dejong and Edman to end the inning but St. Louis was able to tack on to their lead with the Pirates down to their final three outs.

With two outs in the 9th, Ke’Bryan Hayes singled to right off of Cardinal closer Alex Reyes and Bryan Reynolds followed with a single of his own to bring Colin Moran and the tying run to the plate. Moran hit a ball to the warning track in right but Lars Nootbaar made an incredible catch against the wall to end the game and the Pirates have now fallen to 44-80 on the season.

Despite not being able to collect their first sweep of the season, the Pittsburgh Pirates took two of three from the Cardinals in St. Louis and will look to build off some of that momentum moving forward.

What’s Next?

The Pittsburgh Pirates will head back to PNC Park to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-game series tomorrow night. Wil Crowe (5.23 ERA, 5.71 FIP) will take the mound for the Pirates, Arizona has yet to announce a starter. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET.