St. Louis Cardinals defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1 – MLB Update
St. Louis Cardinals won their second game in row on Saturday, 23 July, as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
Lance Berkman and Yadier Molina homered and Jamie Garcia threw shut-out innings to trample the Pirates.
Having played 90 games this season, Berkman hit a homer to make his overall score 61 with a .290 average and .403 OBP, having .606 SLG with 86 hits and 27 home-runs to his credit.
The win also made the Cardinals the only team to have won more games than anyone else at PNC Park in last 11 years. Garcia was proud of the achievement as he pitched 7.1 innings and gave up only one run.
"Obviously they have a lot of good things going for them right now, but we played better today," Garcia said. "We were able to hit pretty good. It was definitely a big win for us."
Holliday and Berkman scored a single each in the first inning to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Kevin Correia came on the mound. Garcia gave up the only run of the game in the bottom of second inning when Brandon Wood singled to
centre.
Then the whole game was in the hands of the Cardinals’ offence which leapt on the seemingly straining defence of Pittsburgh with more resilience and aggression. Correia seemed unable to stop the flow of runs.
For him, the most prohibitively expensive inning – which proved game-decider as well, came in the fifth when he came to pitch against the forward-looking Cardinals’ offence.
Albert Pujols singled to right-centre followed by Berkman’s homer that took the score to 6-1 for the Cardinals. Before Correia stood back, Molina homered to left, making it an irreversible 7-1 for the Cardinals.
"I still feel like we have a run in us of really good baseball that we haven't really put it together yet," Berkman said. "You never know when something like that will start, but certainly the last two nights have been a step in that direction."
Garcia, on the other hand, seemed beyond play. He kept on pitching shut-out innings, entering right into the eighth inning.
David Freese got on to Jose Veras’ vulnerable pitch and scored another RBI single only to be followed by another run coming off Gerlad Laird’s bat that took the score to 9-1 for the Cardinals.
P.J. Walters executed the game to perfection with his shut-out ninth inning and gave the Cardinals their second consecutive victory, with a 9-1 score, in as many nights against the Pirates.
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