Saturday’s Game Report: Cardinals 13, Pirates 0
By Rob Rains, STLSportsPage.com
It was another start for Adam Wainwright against the Pirates, and that meant he had a lot of reasons to smile. So too did his Cardinals teammates.
Wainwright continued his dominance against the Pirates with seven scoreless innings on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, extending his streak without allowing a run against them to 26 consecutive innings as he defeated them for the eighth consecutive start.
The win was the 13th of the season for Wainwright, coming two days before his 40th birthday, and he lowered his ERA for the season to 2.97. In his three starts against the Pirates this month, Wainwright has not allowed a run in 24 innings and for the season he gave up just one run, a home run by Gregory Polanco, in 30 innings spread across four starts.
Wainwright has not lost to the Pirates since April 3, 2016.
The Cardinals backed Wainwright with a season-high 18 hits, four each by Edmundo Sosa and Tommy Edman, as they posted their biggest shutout on the road since another 13-0 win in Pittsburgh on Aug. 1, 2013.
Sosa had two triples and drove in five runs, the first Cardinals player to do that since Ken Boyer in 1962.
The Cardinals now trail the Reds by 3 ½ games in the race for the second wild-card spot.
Here is how Saturday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: The Cardinals broke the game open with a five-run third inning, including Sosa’s bases-loaded triple after he drove in two runs with a triple in the second. Sosa also singled twice to record the first four-hit game of his career … Edman had a double and three singles, driving in two runs, while Paul Goldschmidt drove in two runs with a single and double … Dylan Carlson hit his 13th homer of the year, a two-run shot, which bounced off the glove of leftfielder Anthony Alford and went over the wall in the seventh. Carlson also had a single and walked twice as he reached base four times … The 13 runs were the second most scored by the Cardinals in a game this season; they had 14 on April 13 against Washington in their 11th game of the season … Their previous high for hits in a game had been 15, on May 1 against the Pirates.
On the mound: Wainwright threw first-pitch strikes to 18 of the 25 hitters he faced. He retired the first 12 before Colin Moran singled leading off the fifth. The only other hits allowed by Wainwright were a two-out single in the sixth and a leadoff double in the seventh. He walked one and struck out five. It was the fifth time this season Wainwright has pitched at least seven innings without allowing a run … Junior Fernandez worked the eighth and Kodi Whitley, recalled from Memphis before the game, pitched the ninth to finish off the Cardinals’ 13th shutout of the season.
Key stat: Sosa has started each of the three games so far in this series, with seven hits in 12 at-bats, including a home run and double to go with his two triples. He has driven in seven runs and scored six … In the 54 games when he has been in the starting lineup this season, Sosa has a .315 average (56-of-178) while in games he didn’t start he is just 2-of-32.
Worth noting: Dakota Hudson made his first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery last September as he started for Class A Palm Beach on Saturday night. He allowed two hits in two scoreless innings, striking out one. He threw 24 pitches, 16 for strikes … Andrew Miller went back on the injured list before Saturday night’s game because of a blister on his left foot. Whitley took his place on the roster.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will play the Pirates for the final time this season on Sunday with Kwang Hyun Kim moving back into the rotation to take the spot of the injured Jack Flaherty.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
