Jack Suwinski scored on a fielder’s choice and Andrew McCutchen raced home on a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, fueling the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates to a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.
Pittsburgh rookie Paul Skenes allowed five hits and struck out eight over 6 1/3 scoreless innings. He exited to a standing ovation at Busch Stadium in St. Louis after tossing 103 pitches, the most over his first six starts of his career.
St. Louis’ Miles Mikolas retired the first 16 batters he faced before issuing a walk to Yasmani Grandal in the sixth inning as the game was scoreless through eight innings.
Mikolas’ bid for a no-hitter ended after Bryan Reynolds led off the seventh with a triple; however, the hurler struck out Oneil Cruz and third baseman Nolan Arenado made a diving snag of a liner and doubled up Reynolds to end the inning. Mikolas settled for a no-decision despite allowing just that one hit and striking out six with one walk over seven innings.
Ryan Helsley (2-3) sandwiched walks around McCutchen’s single to load the bases with no outs in the ninth inning before Suwinski beat the throw home from rookie shortstop Masyn Wynn on Connor Joe’s grounder. McCutchen gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead when Cruz flew out in the following at-bat.
Colin Holderman (2-0) worked around two hits to work one scoreless inning and pick up the win.
David Bednar saw Nolan Gorman deposit his first pitch over the wall in right-center field to lead off the ninth inning. Bednar, however, struck out two batters and retired another on a foul out to third to retire the side and secure his 14th save of the season.
The Pirates mustered just three hits en route to winning for the fifth time in seven games.
Gorman’s homer was his team-leading 15th of the season. Alec Burleson had three singles and Nolan Arenado added two hits for the Cardinals, who have lost seven of their last 11 games.
–Field Level Media