Aaaand exhale, just a little bit.
We’ve spent much of the first half of this season talking about the Pirate pitching staff (for good reason, of course), but I think that this one belongs to the offense. After Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer in the third to turn a 1-0 Pirate lead into a 2-1 Cardinal lead, it was easy to be a little nervous and to think some ugly thoughts. The Pirate offense went to work against Lance Lynn after that, though, by doing what the Cardinals did to them last night: by taking advantage of what the universe handed them.
After Carpenter’s homer, the Pirates rallied with a Gregory Polanco walk, a Neil Walker single, and a Jung Ho Kang single to tie the game. Jordy Mercer then laced a ground ball up the middle that looked like a potential double play, but the ball hit Walker on his way to third instead. Walker was the second out, but Mercer and Kang were both safe. That let Kang score on a Pedro Alvarez single into center field, giving the Pirates a 3-2 lead.
Next inning, Chris Stewart reached on an infield single. He was bunted to second by Gerrit Cole and went to third on a Polanco groundout to second. If you had a brief moment of doubt that the Pirates would waste such a rare occurrence (meaning the single, not Stewart being on third), Neil Walker put it to bed quickly by bashing his seventh homer of the year and his third homer of July, putting the Pirates ahead 5-2.
That was all that Gerrit Cole needed. Cole put down six in a row after Carpenter’s homer, and only two Cardinals got into scoring position over the rest of his outing. His line score wasn’t one of his most impressive (he only had three strikeouts in his seven innings of work), but he got a bunch of ground balls and never really let the Cardinals back in the game after getting the lead back. It was actually pretty similar to his start last Sunday against the Indians; both clubs are hard to strike out and Cole gave up early deficits to both of them, but Cole’s incredible first half is just as much about ground balls as it is about strikeouts. He kept both clubs pounding balls into the dirt, and he helped get the Pirates wins in both games.
I joked on Twitter after the game ended that I always like the first win of a Cardinal series because I’m half-certain at the start of every series that the Pirates will be swept, but this is a big win. The Pirates have had trouble with the NL Central this year, and the Pirates have quite a few frustrating losses to the Cardinals already. Last night only served to act as a multiplier. This win puts the Cards’ division lead back to 4 1/2 games, it gives the Pirates a really good shot at going into the break with the deficit right where it is now, and it keeps hope alive that they can cut it down even further this weekend. It’s hard for wins in July to be the same as wins in August and September, but not all July baseball is created equal. This was a big win tonight, and gives the Pirates a chance to get two more big wins this weekend. I very literally could not have asked for more.
Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
