St. Louis Cardinals: Birds Beat Buccos in Dramatic Fashion

Saturday was a very exciting day for a lot of reasons. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in walk off fashion, and David Freese played in his first game at Busch Stadium since 2013.

Matt Carpenter played the role of hero Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was his ninth inning walk off home run that helped the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pirates 6-4 in a game that was filled with key moments.

The Pirates got things started early on, scoring two runs off four hits in the top of the first inning against Adam Wainwright. He would go on to pitch 6.1 innings while giving up just two runs off seven hits while striking out five.

The Cardinals answered in their half of the first with a two RBI single off the bat of Randal Grichuk. In the bottom of the third inning, Stephen Piscotty crushed his fifth home run of the season to give the Cardinals the 3-2 lead. Both Grichuk and Piscotty had great games Saturday.

The offense on both sides was quiet up until the top of the seventh when the Pirates’ John Jaso singled on a ground ball to center that scored Matt Joyce to tie the game up 3-3. The Cardinals retook the lead in the bottom of the eight off an RBI single by Randal Grichuk. He finished 2-for-4 with three RBI on the day, a performance he most certainly has been waiting for in recent weeks.

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The ninth inning is when things got really interesting. Pinch-hitting for the Pirates, David Freese was greeted by Cardinals fans with a loud standing ovation. He reached first on a throwing error by Aledmys Diaz. The error was Diaz’s sixth on the year and the 26th for the Cardinals this season.

Trevor Rosenthal walked John Jaso to put runners at first and second, but was able to strike out the always dangerous Andrew McCutchen to get the first out in the ninth. Matt Adams had a nice defensive play that made it two outs. All Rosenthal had to was find a way to get Starling Marte out, but that’s no easy task.

Marte smacked a liner to left centerfield that ended up being a ground rule double that scored David Freese from third base. Marte’s hit tied the game up at four.

Aledmys Diaz, who committed the error in the ninth that eventually scored, redeemed himself in the bottom half by reaching on an infield single. Jeremy Hazelbaker came up to the plate and hit a towering fly ball to left, but it dropped at the wall. Matt Carpenter came up to face A.J. Schugel and worked the count.

Schugel tried to place a pitch on the outside half, but it caught a little too much of the plate. The result was Carpenter’s first career walk off home run to send the fans home happy. The home run was also Carpenter’s fourth of the season.

Next: Redbird Rants Podcast Episode 101

To see the full box score from Saturday’s game, click here.

The Cardinals will finish the home stand Sunday afternoon against the Pirates at 1:15. The pitching matchup will see Michael Wacha face off against Gerrit Cole.