Sunday in St. Louis had a festive feel and was supposed to be about a coronation of Cardinals stars, the formal feting of Adam Wainwright, Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina in their final regular-season home game.
Apparently, nobody told the Pirates.
With an occurrence that feels about as frequent as Halley's Comet when you consider how this series has gone over the past handful of years, with the Cardinals winning 24 of the past 34 between the teams, the Pirates got a couple of clutch hits and roughed up Wainwright during a 7-5 victory at Busch Stadium, salvaging the final game of this series.
Ben Gamel (three-run) and Bryan Reynolds (solo) each hit homers, while Miguel Andujar drove in a pair of runs. Oneil Cruz, Ji Hwan Bae and Reynolds all tallied multiple hits, with Cruz lashing a 106.1 mph double and scoring the go-ahead run.
Jack Suwinski, on base three times, put the Pirates in front for good with his single in the fifth, which knocked Wainwright out of the game. Pittsburgh's bullpen held tight the rest of the way, staving off 100 losses until these teams reconvene for a three-game, season-closing set starting Monday at PNC Park.
Not long after an elaborate, on-field ceremony delayed first pitch by nearly 30 minutes, Pujols gave the Busch Stadium crowd more to cheer about with a two-run double in the bottom of the first inning when he roped a Roansy Contreras fastball into the left-field corner. Molina add a sacrifice fly to give the Cardinals an early 3-0 lead.
That didn’t last long, however, as Gamel connected on a 3-1 sinker that Wainwright left over the heart of the plate for a game-tying, three-run homer in the second. Andujar’s sacrifice fly an inning later helped the Pirates grab a 4-3 lead.
More fireworks from the red-hot Pujols tied the game, with the iconic slugger belting his 702nd career home run. The solo shot in the third came on a fastball Contreras left up in the zone and landed on the grassy hill in center.
Contreras finished the frame, but that was it. The Pirates continued to take a cautious approach with their prized young arm and removed him after just 50 pitches — potentially a smart move with his velocity down 1.5 mph from its season mark.
Chase De Jong entered in the fourth and gave up a run-scoring double to Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong, giving St. Louis a 5-4 advantage, before the Pirates answered yet again.
In the top of the fifth, Andujar’s tapper back to Wainwright allowed Bae to score. Suwinski ripped an up-and-in sinker to right for a run-scoring single, pushing the Pirates in front 6-5.
How rare was the Pirates scoring six runs against Wainwright, a pitcher who has dominated them more than pretty much anyone else of late?
Wainwright had allowed a total of five runs over his past nine starts against the Pirates. Furthermore, in the tall righty’s 44 career starts against Pittsburgh, he’s allowed more than six runs just one time — June 29, 2012, when he gave up seven.
While the Pirates’ last win over Wainwright came on April 3, 2016, the last time they beat him in St. Louis was that 2012 affair, when Pittsburgh had two homers among its 11 hits.
It was surely a frustrating start for Wainwright, who now has a 7.22 ERA over his past half-dozen starts, but it ended in incredible fashion, with Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol removing Wainwright, Pujols and Molina together, the three walking into the home dugout to thunderous applause.
Having already surpassed his career high in homers, Reynolds gave the Pirates some breathing room with a solo home run in the seventh inning, going down to get a looping curveball at the bottom of the zone from left-handed reliever Zack Thompson for his 27th.
Duane Underwood Jr., Yohan Ramirez, Robert Stephenson and David Bednar finished it off with 4⅓ innings of scoreless relief, walking two and striking out five.
Around the horn
Before Sunday’s game, the Pirates activated Tyler Heineman from the seven-day concussion list and placed Zack Collins on the 10-day injured list with a non-COVID illness. … With his stolen base in the third inning, Cruz is now just one of eight rookies all-time with 10 home runs and 10 steals in fewer than 90 MLB games.
