Pirates overcome rain delay, use 8 pitchers to top St. Louis
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It took until the final day of May for the Pittsburgh Pirates to emerge victorious from a series.
With Saturday’s 4-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday at PNC Park, the Pirates (30-27) earned their first series win of June in the opening series of the month.
With the win, the Pirates remain a half-game behind Milwaukee (31-27) for first place in the NL Central.
A 60-minute-long rain delay, beginning in the top of the third, prompted manager Derek Shelton to yank starter Luis Ortiz after two innings pitched.
From there, the bullpen managed to preserve the lead over seven innings of work.
After Ortiz’s departure, Shelton turned to seven relievers: Angel Perdomo, Yerry De Los Santos, Jose Hernandez, Dauri Moreta, Colin Holderman, Yohan Ramirez and David Bednar.
Moreta (3-1, 1.69 ERA) earned the win, pitching 1 2/3 innings.
“Losing the starter because of the rain delay, they just continued to push through,” Shelton said of the bullpen’s effort. “ … They just continued to go and kind of fed off each other.”
The Cardinals’ pair of runs in the eighth off of the usually steady Holderman, by way of Nolan Gorman’stwo-run homer over the Clemente Wall, turned the game into a nailbiter.
At that point, the score was 4-3 in favor of the Pirates.
Despite Holderman’s less-than-stellar appearance, Ramirez was able to extinguish the fire in the eighth and Bednar shut the door in the ninth, notching his 12th save of the season and securing the Pirates’ fourth win in a row.
Connor Joe hit a crucial two-run double in the bottom of the sixth and scored soon thereafter on a Carlos Santana bloop single into right field.
That made the score 4-1 in favor of the Pirates.
With Ortiz (1-2, 4.37 ERA) on the mound, St. Louis’ Willson Contreras launched a solo home run in the second inning for the game’s first run, which the Pirates answered in the fifth when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a solo shot of his own, tying the score 1-1.
Hayes, who crushed a three-run homer Friday, came through offensively for the second straight night, as did Santana.
While the Cardinals let their starter, Jordan Montgomery, retake the mound after the rain delay, Shelton opted to end the rookie Ortiz’s afternoon early, with the 24-year-old taking a no-decision.
“We’re in a different situation,” Shelton said. “Montgomery is a veteran guy and has an idea of what he’s doing — that’s not to say (Ortiz) doesn’t, but (Ortiz) is going to be a starter here for a long time.
“So, if we’re going to err there, we’re going to err on the side of caution (to make) sure that he’s OK and doesn’t get hurt.”
The home run Holderman allowed was the primary blemish on the bullpen’s collective after-action report.
Perdomo, De Los Santos, Hernandez, Moreta, Ramirez and Bednar threw a combined 6 2/3 innings, allowing three hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
The afternoon performances of Perdomo and De Los Santos, called up from Triple-A Indianapolis hours before first pitch, were particularly impressive.
Perdomo was the first man out of the bullpen following Ortiz and gave the Pirates 2 1/3 innings of shutout baseball, allowing zero hits and striking out three.
The 6-foot-8, 29-year-old made his first MLB appearance since August of 2021 with the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I was a starter before. I have no problem going multiple innings,” he said. “ … The key is to establish my fastball and my slider will work off of that. If that fastball is working that night, the slider is most likely going to be working, too.”
De Los Santos replaced Perdomo on the mound in the fifth inning, recording the final two outs before Shelton inserted Hernandez.
Nolan Arenado, who has captured the NL Gold Glove for 10 straight seasons, made an uncharacteristic error in the sixth, allowing Mark Mathias to reach first base.
Shelton pinch-ran Ji Hwan Bae for Mathias, with Jason Delay moving him to second on a sacrifice bunt.
After Andrew McCutchen grounded out and Bryan Reynolds walked, Joe came to the plate and ripped a two-out, two-run double off the right-field wall, chasing Montgomery from the game.
Tucupita Marcano (2 for 3) and Rodolfo Castro (2 for 4) produced the only multi-hit performances of the night for the Pirates.
McCutchen went 0 for 4 and remains at 1,997 career hits.
Source: TribLIVE
