ST. LOUIS — Wednesday’s Game Report: Cardinals 10, Pirates 5
One of the reasons the Cardinals have hovered around the .500 mark all season has been the lack of innings like the seventh inning on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium.
Trailing 5-4, the Cardinals tied the game on a leadoff home run by Masyn Winn and went on to send 11 batters to the plate and scored six runs in the inning to beat the Pirates for the third consecutive night.
The Cardinals took advantage of an error and two walks in front of three consecutive bases-loaded hits, capped by a three-run double from Jordan Walker.
Now with just 10 games left in the regular season, the Cardinals remained seven games out of the third and final wild-card spot behind both the Mets and Braves.
Here is how Wednesday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Brendan Donovan started the big night for the Cardinals offense with a two-run homer off former teammate Jake Woodford in the second inning … Paul Goldschmidt hit his first triple since 2021 to drive in a run and scored on a single by Nolan Arenado in the third to build the lead to 4-0 … Arenado had a three-hit night with two singles and a double and also walked in his other two plate appearances … The other bases-loaded hits in the seventh came from Ivan Herrera and Lars Nootbaar … Herrera also had three of the Cardinals’ 14 hits.
On the mound: Sonny Gray saw the 4-0 lead evaporate when the Pirates scored twice in the fourth before they took the lead in the sixth. Back-to-back two-out singles ended Gray’s night and Matthew Liberatore allowed a three-run homer on his first pitch after taking over on the mound … Michael McGreevy, recalled from Memphis, worked the final three innings in his first professional relief appearance, shutting out the Pirates while allowing two hits and striking out four.
Key stat: The Cardinals came into the game with a .164 team average with the bases loaded this season with just seven extra-base hits in 110 at-bats.
Worth noting: With his fifth strikeout in the game, Gray reached the 200 mark for the season … Manager Oli Marmol and hitting coach Turner Ward were ejected in the fourth inning for arguing balls and strikes … McGreevy replaced Lance Lynn on the active roster after Lynn went back on the injured list because of inflammation in his right knee.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will try to complete the sweep of the four-game series behind Erick Fedde on Thursday night.