Pittsburgh Pirates lose to St. Louis Cardinals 3-4 – MLB Update
Pittsburgh Pirates continued their decline as they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 3-4 in a thrilling encounter at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, August 27 in the opening game of their three match series.
Starting pitcher A.J. Burnett, who has helped Pittsburgh win several important games this season was unable to live up to the expectations on Monday.
Burnett gave up seven hits and four runs in just over five innings to take his fifth loss of the season. Relief pitchers Jared Hughes, Jason Grilli and Tony Watson combined to pitched three plus scoreless innings but their effort went was in vain as St.
Louis held on to a one run lead to complete a deserving win.
Andrew McCutchen provided Pirates with an excellent start with an RBI single to shallow centre in the fourth inning. Clint Barmes and Josh Harrison also made their presence felt.
"He killed it," the St. Louis Cardinals’ manager said of Matt Holliday’s home-run in the sixth. "It's hard to hit a ball that hard the opposite way but it was still going up when it hit the seats. He really hit it."
"He wasn't locating as well with his pitches as he normally does," McCutchen said of starting pitcher Kyle Lohse who gave up just two runs in five innings. "We were able to jump on him and get a couple runs off him in that one inning. We probably would have
had another chance at him but that changed with the rain."
Both teams put up a brave fight and it was a pity that one had to lose. Cardinals showed superior mental toughness and composure as they outplayed their opponents in finer details of the game to grab a vital victory.
Pirates, on the other hand, failed to handle the pressure, making errors at critical stages of the game. Their recent dip in form has sent them to third spot on the National League Central Division standings table and it will be interesting to see if Clint
Hurdle and his men can bounce back strongly in Game 2 to keep the series alive.
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