Tuesday’s Game Report: Pirates 2, Cardinals 0
By Rob Rains
On a chilly, windy night in Pittsburgh, the Cardinals’ bats were colder than the weather.
With a gametime temperature of 60 degrees that dropped into the 50s, and an 11 miles per hour wind, the Cardinals were held to just one hit in being shut out by the Pirates on Tuesday night.
Nathan Church flared a double down the third base line with one out in the sixth for the Cardinals’ only hit, and their first baserunner of the game against Jared Jones.
They struck out 14 times, half coming from the top two hitters in their lineup, JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera, who fanned in all four of his at-bats.
It was the 81st loss of the season for the Cardinals, who will have to win their final five games of the year to avoid their second consecutive losing season.
Here is how Tuesday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Church was left on second base when Masyn Winn lined out and Wetherholt struck out … The Cardinals only other baserunners came on a two-out walk to Thomas Saggese in the eighth and a leadoff walk to Winn in the ninth … The only two batters who did not strike out at least once were Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker.
On the mound: Andre Pallante matched zeroes with Jones until the sixth, when a one-out walk and a two-out single by Ryan O’Hearn allowed the Pirates to score the game’s first run … Pallante allowed just three hits, walked two and struck out two over his six innings … Justin Bruihl hit the leadoff batter in the seventh and that runner later scored on a wild pitch from Cade Winquest … The Cardinals were able to strand five runners on either second or third.
Key stat: Pallante lost a road game for the first time this season. He had been 7-0 with five no-decisions in 12 starts on the road and now has allowed only 21 runs in 71 1/3 innings in those starts, an ERA of 2.65.
Worth noting: This was only the second time in 211 games the Cardinals have played at PNC Park since it opened in 2001 when they were shut out on only one hit. The other time came on April 17, 2013 … The only other time the Cardinals were shut out on one hit in Pittsburgh was in 1935.
Up next: Matthew Liberatore will get his final start of the season on Wednesday night in the second game of the series.
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