Matthew Liberatore had another strong start, but another not strong ending as he pitched 4 solid innings, but he would not finish the 5th inning as the game got away from him. Fortunately, the Cardinals offense lead by JJ Wetherholt, Nolan Gorman, Alec Burleson and eventually Ivan Herrera picked him up beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-6, but it would take extra innings heroism to get it done.
The Cardinals would score first as Pedro Pagés walked and then JJ Wetherholt put a charge into a 2-1 pitch from Mitch Keller and deposit it in the left-center field greenery giving St. Louis a 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals would add a run to that lead in the bottom of the 4th inning as Alec Burleson singled followed by another single by Jordan Walker. Alec advanced to third on Jordan’s single. Nolan Gorman then hit into a double play, but Burleson scored giving St. Louis a 3-0 lead that wouldn’t last long.
The first few innings of Matthew Liberatore’s performance was impressive and that included a career-high 9 strikeouts. It was the 5th inning that would be his nemesis again. Lowe and Triolo singled to start the top of the 5th. Liberatore would get Davis to fly out to center for the 1st out, but then walked Gonzalez to load the bases. Matthew then unleashed a wild pitch that bounced off the backstop allowing Lowe to score from third base for the first Pirates run making it 3-1 Cardinals. Liberatore struck out Konnor Griffin, but then Bryan Reynolds doubled to left driving in both runners and tying the game 3-3. O’Neill Cruz would untie it with a single to score Reynolds and give the Pirates their first lead at 4-3. Gordon Graceffo was brought in by manager Oli Marmol and he was able to get Garcia out on a pop-out to first to end the inning. Matthew Liberatore’s final stat line for the night was 4 2/3 innings allowing 7 hits and 4 earned runs with 2 walks and that impressive strikeout total of 9.
The comeback Cardinals would so so again in the bottom of the 6th inning when Alec Burleson was hit by a pitch. After Jordan Walker popped out, the Pittsburgh Pirates made the fateful decision to remove Mitch Keller to go lefty-on-lefty bringing in Evan Fisk. Nolan Gorman made them pay by jacking a 437 foot homer into the right-center field seats giving the Cardinals the lead back at 5-4.
Gordon Graceffo pitched the Cardinals through the 6th inning keeping the game close and Ryne Stanek got 2 outs in the 7th inning while JoJo Romero closed out the Pirates for the final out in the top of the 7th inning and also pitched into the 8th inning for St. Louis.
The Cardinals squandered a chance to add an insurance run (or runs) to their lead in the bottom of the 7th inning when Thomas Saggese walked followed by a single from Pedro Pagés. Victor Scott II executed a picture-perfect sacrifice bunt to move Saggese to third and Pagés to second which brought up JJ Wetherholt. Unfortunately, Thomas Saggese would get caught leading off of third base and then falling down before being tagged out in a rundown. Wetherholt would then walk, but Ivan Herrera struck out to end the Cardinals 7th. Opportunity missed for St. Louis.
Kudos to Alec Burleson on two great achievements in the top of the 8th inning in what could be argued were game-savers. With one out and Garcia on first, Triolo hit a weak grounder to Alec Burleson who was well off of first base. JoJo Romero did not get a proper jump off of the mound to cover first, but Alec laid himself out and managed to get the tag on Triolo for the second out of the inning. Rodriguez would fly out to deep right-center to end the Pirates 8th inning. Then, in the bottom of the 8th inning, Alec would lead off the inning by tomahawking a ball into the right field bullpen giving St. Louis the insurance run they so badly needed making it 6-4 Cardinals. They would end up needing that additional run.
A rested Riley O’Brien was brought in to close out Pittsburgh in the top of the 9th inning. He would face the top of the Pirates order and it was not without some drama. Gonzalez would lead off the inning with a bloop single. Konnor Griffin was hit by a pitch which stood even though the Cardinals challenged the call and it appeared to hit the knob of the bat instead. Guess New York didn’t consider the video replay as clear and convincing enough to overturn it. That brought up the dangerous Bryan Reynolds as the potential go-ahead run at the plate. Riley O’Brien would bounce a ball in the dirt that hit Reynolds after getting him 2 strikes down loading the bases. Marcell Ozuna was the next man up and he kindly hit into a double play, but a run scored cutting the Cardinals lead to 6-5. O’Neill Cruz at the plate with the tying run in the form of Konnor Griffin on third base was next. O’Brien would again get ahead with 2 strikes before throwing 4 straight balls to put Cruz on as a potential go-ahead run. Spencer Horwitz pinch-hit for Garcia and promptly slapped a single to left field on the first pitch he saw to tie the game at 6-6.
The Cardinals bottom of the 9th meant they’d have to walk off the Pirates with the bottom of their order. Thomas Saggese struck out to start the St. Louis 9th. Pedro Pagés also whiffed for the second out. Victor Scott II lost his 3rd strike appeal to join the strikeout club ending the Cardinals 9th.
The first Cardinals hero in extra innings was George Soriano who did not allow Pittsburgh’s designated runner to score. He struck out Mangum and got Rodriguez to fly out to right field. The other Cardinals hero in the top of the 10th was Nolan Gorman who made a great play on a ground ball to his left and an equally great play by Alec Burleson to pick his throw out of the dirt for the final Pittsburgh out in the top of the 10th.
The heroes in the bottom of the 10th inning included JJ Wetherholt who singled to move designated runner Victor Scott II to third. Then, it was Ivan Herrera who would provide more than just a sacrifice fly crushing a walk-off 3-run home run into the Pirates bullpen giving St. Louis a huge 9-6 victory.
It’s game 2 of the St. Louis Cardinals barrage of games against NL Central rivals Wednesday as Michael McGreevy will try to dominate the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs will counter with Carmen Mlodzinski on the mound for Pittsburgh. First pitch scheduled for 6:45pm at Busch Stadium and game viewable on Cardinals.tv.
