Allen Craig helps St. Louis Cardinals avoid series sweep against Pittsburgh Pirates – MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals avoided a series sweep as they secured a narrow 5-4 win against Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri on Sunday, July 1 in the finale of the three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Credit must be given to Allen Craig who helped the Cardinals grab a much needed victory on Sunday evening. St. Louis’ first baseman homered for the second time in just three days and Yadier Molina displayed some top quality hitting skills to help their team
prevail in extremely hot and humid conditions.
Molina hit a solo shot in the second inning to put the Cardinals on the board and Craig homered to centre in the third to extend his team’s lead to 3-0. Matt Holliday also played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash as he doubled to deep-left
in the fifth to level the score.
Shane Robinson drove in a tie breaking run in the fifth inning and Molina scored as the Cardinals snatched a superb victory.
"It's been a rough couple days before today, playing a team you're behind in the standings that's playing really well," relief pitcher Mitchell Boggs said. "For us to get this last one, and for our bullpen to get some pretty big outs in a tight game, it
doesn't hurt.”
"That's ridiculous, I'm not out there going, 'Oh man, don't s***w this up or we'll get swept,'" Jason Motte said. "Those are negative thoughts, you go out there with those and you end up getting yourself hurt."
Starting pitcher Jake Westbrook beat the Pirates for the first time in his career as he gave up just four runs in six effective innings. Westbrook has now won three straight decisions and it will be interesting to see if he can maintain his excellent form
to help Pittsburgh stay at the top of the National League Central standings.
In some ways, it was an extremely important game for both teams. Had the Pirates won the game, they would have taken the first place on the NL Central Division standings table. Cardinals, on the other, avoided series sweep to stay within a touching distance
of leaders Cleveland Indians.
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