Allen Craig shines as St. Louis Cardinals defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2 - MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals’ right-fielder, Allen Craig had a notable day with the bat as he went 4-for-5 with an average of .331 and hit two home-runs including three RBIs in the Cardinals’ 7-2 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, Pittsburgh on August
17.
After losing first two games, Cardinals started this one with a solid potential as their batters smashed three runs during first inning to take a 3-0 lead. Craig struck a two-run homer (409 feet) towards centre-field and Rafael Furcal posted one run. Matt
Holliday contributed third run for Cardinals when Yadier Molina drove a single-run shot to centre-field.
The next three innings from second to fourth were score-less as the pitchers threw their curveballs in good line. At the top of second inning, Furcal doubled to deep right-field but Albert Pujols and Kyle Lohse both grounded out to short-stop position without
adding any run for Cardinals.
Similarly, the Pirates were also unable to open their scoring account and got out as at third base, Garrett Jones popped out and Andrew McCutchen struck-out. At second base, Ryan Doumit grounded out without giving any run to Pirates at the bottom of third
inning. Lohse struck-out seven batters on his 100 pitches and permitted one walk with an ERA of 3.33. He gave up five hits, two runs, one home-run and two earned runs in his seven inning pitches.
Pirates added their initial two runs at the bottom of fifth inning and reduced their lead 3-2. Jose Tabata struck a two-run homer (401 feet) to right-field and Ronny Cedeno scored second run for Pirates. Lohse was grounded out to second base during sixth
inning but Ryan Theriot posted one run to raise the Cardinals’ lead 4-2.
Craig said, “That was definitely a big win to kind of stop things there. It would have been tough to lose this game, definitely.”
Allen hit his second home-run (369 feet) of the game towards left-field and Cardinals led off with 5-2 at the top of seventh inning. Cardinals got a 7-2 lead in eighth inning by adding two runs. Molina contributed a single run when Lance Berkman drove a
single-run shot to right-field. Craig reached third base on an infield single and Jon Jay posted the last run on score-board.
Despite this fabulous victory, Cardinals lost the three-game series 2-1 against Pirates at PNC Park.
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