ST. LOUIS (AP) — The chants of “YA-DI! YA-DI! YA-DI!” were punctuated by the sharp crack of his bat. Yadier Molina, the veteran catcher scratched from the previous two games because of a sore knee, sent an RBI single to right off reliever Juan Nicasio. The swing sparked a four-run seventh inning Sunday and spoiled the Pirates’ shot at their first sweep in St. Louis in 20 years.
The Pirates were searching for their first three-game road sweep of the Cardinals since May 27-29, 1991, when Molina was 8 years old and the St. Louis ballpark was Busch Stadium II, not III. Their pursuit was scotched by a pitching implosion, as the Cardinals scored twice in the sixth and four times in the seventh to claim an 8-4 come-from-behind win in the series finale.
“We didn’t finish,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We had two bad innings.”
Pittsburgh (35-41) ended its seven-game road trip with four victories and three losses, their first winning road trip this season, yet something about it seemed to sting. They played well in Milwaukee and St. Louis, winning the first two games of both series, but closed poorly. The bullpen, an increasingly inconsistent bunch, was to blame in two of their three losses.
“Of course it bothers us,” said Nicasio, who was charged with four runs, three earned, in the seventh. “When the sixth inning comes, the team depends on us. It’s our responsibility. When we start missing pitches and runs start scoring, that’s something we don’t want. The good thing is we’re still in the first half of the season. But that’s not something we enjoy or like.”
A silver lining for right-hander Chad Kuhl, who allowed four runs on eight hits in five-plus innings, was he pitched into the sixth inning for the first time since April 18 in St. Louis, ending a span of 11 starts of five innings or fewer. The reason a silver lining might matter, however, was Kuhl lasted only two batters into the sixth. A homer. A double. And, shortly, a tie game.
“If you want to develop starting pitching, you don’t develop five-inning pitchers,” Hurdle said of Kuhl, whose ERA after 15 starts is 5.58. “He worked to get that opportunity.”
Left-hander Tony Watson permitted an inherited runner to score on pinch-hitter Jedd Gyorko’s RBI double in the sixth. The lion’s share of the damage was done against Nicasio in the seventh. He walked the first two batters. A run scored on Molina’s single, another on Jordy Mercer’s fielding error and two more on Paul DeJong’s two-run single off reliever Jhan Marinez.
Nicasio spent 29 pitches recording one out. His ERA has risen from 1.23 to 3.16 in his past five appearances, contributing alongside veterans Watson and Daniel Hudson to put the Pirates in a position where their only trusted reliever is left-hander Felipe Rivero, their quasi-closer.
“Just too many pitches,” Hurdle said. “The two walks painted [Nicasio] in a bad corner.”
Cardinals right-hander Mike Leake was charged with four runs, three earned, in six innings. It was a result, Hurdle acknowledged, the Pirates “don’t do often” against Leake. It was insufficient.
The Cardinals (33-41) opened the scoring with a two-run second inning which nearly was far worse. Three consecutive singles, including two infield singles — one smashed, one soft — to shortstop, loaded the bases with no outs. A foul pop fly was the first out, and Greg Garcia shot a line-drive single to center field, scoring Randal Grichuk and Molina, who had three hits.
“If you look at the line, it’s ugly,” admitted Kuhl, who struck out six and walked one. “That second inning was rough, a couple infield singles, had to pitch around some damage there and do my best to limit it.”
With two outs, Matt Carpenter, who had singled in the first inning, scalded a grounder up the first-base line. First baseman Josh Bell made a diving stop along the line, hurried to his feet and dived again to tag first base with his mitt, barely beating Carpenter to the bag.
“He worked hard to stay ready,” Hurdle said, “and it pays off.”
The Pirates thundered back in the third, their offense awakening against Leake. Mercer walked leading off, and Elias Diaz sliced a double into the right-field corner. After Kuhl struck out, Adam Frazier ripped a two-strike cutter up the gap for a two-run triple, knotting the score. Josh Harrison followed with a sacrifice fly to center field, putting the Pirates ahead, 3-2.
In the fourth, St. Louis offered assistance, as shortstop Aledmys Diaz’s throwing error put runners in scoring position with one out. Elias Diaz lifted a sacrifice fly to push the lead to two.
Kuhl, meanwhile, had settled in after the 31-pitch second inning. He retired nine batters in a row from the end of the second inning to the start of the fifth. When Leake singled and Carpenter walked, Kuhl struck out Tommy Pham and induced a fly ball from Stephen Piscotty to end the fifth-inning jam. At 88 pitches, Kuhl was poised to pitch into the sixth inning.
Poised, but perhaps not prepared.
Grichuk, who earlier in the day was recalled from Class AAA Memphis, was keyed on Kuhl’s slider, a pitch he had leaned on for the first five innings. On Kuhl’s 2-2 delivery, Grichuk identified the slider spinning toward the inner half and pulverized it. The baseball went an estimated 478 feet and landed in the second deck, the longest homer by a Cardinals batter in the history of Busch Stadium III, a ballpark which once was home to slugger Albert Pujols.
“Went to the well one too many times,” Kuhl said of the slider, “and he got it.”
After Molina struck a double to center, taking advantage of Andrew McCutchen’s arm to take second, Hurdle lifted Kuhl for Watson. Aledmys Diaz dropped a sacrifice bunt, DeJong struck out and the pinch-hitter Gyorko hit a game-tying, ground-rule double. Right fielder John Jaso came close to making the grab in the gap, but he could not come up with the catch.
The Pirates intentionally walked pinch-hitter Jose Martinez, setting up a left-on-left matchup, and with runners at the corners Carpenter sent the left fielder Frazier to the warning track. With his back to the wall, Frazier made the grab and slowed the bleeding, though it did not stop.
