Cardinals' win overshadowed by Piscotty injury

Well, that was some kind of Cardinals’ game. I can’t say a remember a game much like this one tonight.

The game had that “the Pirates are going to score a bunch of runs any moment now” feeling to it for most of the game. That was pretty much the theme of the game.

The Pirates totaled 17 baserunners tonight on six hits, ten walks, and one error. They finished the night with a total of 16 runners left on base and a combined 0-12 with runners in scoring position.

Lance Lynn turned in a decent start, going five innings allowing zero runs on four hits, four walks, and striking out six Pirate batters. For most of his outing, Lynn was relying on his defense to get him out of some jams including a double play in the second inning by Jason Heyward on a pop fly in which he threw out Starling Marte at home. Lynn escaped another bases load jam in the very next inning by getting Neil Walker to ground out at first.

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The Cardinals on the other hand, were not able to get much going on the offensive side totaling just one hit through the first six innings against J.A. Happ and one per inning against the first two Pirate relievers used.

The major story of tonight’s game was the unfortunate events that took place in the bottom of the seventh inning. On a 3-2 pitch from Kevin Siegrist, Josh Harrison hit a high fly ball out to deep left center, and both left fielder Stephen Piscotty and center fielder Peter Bourjos had a bead on the ball. Unfortunately, neither were alert to each other’s presence and Piscotty dove for the ball, while Bourjos made the catch with Piscotty colliding into his legs head first.

Piscotty lay on the field motionless for a few seconds, as Bourjos motioned for the trainers to come out and assist Piscotty. I was listening to the game via my phone, and the tone John Rooney and Rick Horton had made me extremely worried for Piscotty’s well being. The medical staff had to place him on a stretcher and cart him off of the field. The official release from the team was that Piscotty left with a head contusion and was sent to a local hospital for further evaluation. After the game, Mike Matheny said that Piscotty looked ok and should be fine, according to MLB.com’s Alyson Footer.

Everybody was praying for Piscotty’s long term health here, as that was a pretty nasty collision. However, looking at the team side of it. How many more injuries will this team have to go through? Piscotty has been such a key cog to this team and while I want his overall health to be the main concern here; losing him for a significant amount of time could hurt this team. Or, another person could step up and fill the need as this team has done throughout the season. However, it seems that the Cardinals’ and Piscotty may have dodged a bullet here.

In the mean time, the Cardinals and Pirates had a game to continue. Siegrist was able to work himself out of a self induced jam in the bottom of the seventh sending the Cardinals to bat in the top half of the eighth inning.

Cardinals’ win overshadowed by Piscotty injury

By Steven McNeil | Sep 28, 2015