St. Louis Cardinals defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 – MLB Update
The St. Louis Cardinals maintained their rapidly improving performance and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 on Wednesday, September 14 at PNC Park.
Edwin Jackson pitched over six innings and allowed only two runs to win the three-game series by 2-1.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, whose performance was subject to severe criticism last year, have been doing relatively well this time round. Last year they had a record of 57-105 (considered to be worst in the big-league) and this time it already has remained 67-82.
"They compete," Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa said. "Clint and his coaching staff have done a really good job of getting their players to play hard for nine innings. They've played us tough and everybody else, too."
Although the fate of this series never favoured the Pirates, they put up a good fight to remain afloat as that is where they think they are doing well.
"Our how-to is going to have to get better, because we've got to get this organization to the point where we're no longer talking about consecutive losing seasons," said first-year manager Clint Hurdle.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, won the seventh of the last eight games they have played. Having his seventh save in the last 10 games, Jason Motte pitched a perfect ninth to hold the Pirates back from scoring the tiebreaking or winning run.
The St. Louis Cardinals had a rather aggressive start on Wednesday when the game kicked off. Charlie Morton could not maintain his ascendancy on Allen Craig, like on other hitters of the Pirates. Craig had a run to right to give the Cardinals an early lead.
Coming off the mound, Edwin Jackson did not seem willing to allow any run to the Pirates’ hitters. His pitches remained generally effective, proving a challenge for the Pirates’ offence. However, it was in the third that they levelled the score.
Alex Presley had a double to left to tie the score while the Cardinals’ offence was quick enough to reciprocate. It was Yadier Molina who doubled to deep right to take the lead to 3-1 for the Cardinals, something that the Pirates had to reverse with intense
efforts.
Derrek Lee got a single in the sixth, but that only brought the lead down to 3-2. Afterwards, Charlie Morton pitched a perfect seventh, Marc Rzepczynsk had a hitless and scoreless eighth and it was Jason Motte who went for a scoreless ninth to turn the game
into a 3-2 win for the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cardinals dominated throughout the game and managed to restrict the Pirates’ offence from coming back into the game. The Pirates will be looking to improve their performance before their next match-up.
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