St. Louis Cardinals overwhelm the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 – MLB Update
The St. Louis Cardinals resurged once again and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 on Tuesday, September 13 at PNC Park, Pittsburgh.
This was the sixth victory for the Cardinals in the last seven games.
The win came in the ninth inning when Nick Punto hit a go-ahead double, putting the Cardinals on an irreversible winning track at the most pressing time for the team. Part of the Cardinals’ strategy has been to keep themselves afloat in the NL Central race.
Chris Carpenter who was engaged in intense negotiations whether to stay in the team and later signed a two-year contract extension, pitched seven innings, allowing four runs and going for six strike-outs in a game which saw his ERA at 3.80.
His rival Jeff Karstens, on the other hand, gave up seven hits and allowed four runs in merely 4.1 innings which ultimately cost the Pirates a great deal.
Yadier Molina hit a one-run double to left-centre in the second and Carpenter himself had a two-run single to centre in the same inning to give the Cardinals an effective 3-0 lead by the end of the inning.
Josh Harrison was quick to score a single in the third to bring the lead down to 3-1 while Derrek Lee homered to right to make it 3-2 for Pittsburgh by the end of the third inning. However, Jon Jay was quick to have a run in the fifth to take the Cardinals
lead to 4-2 as the fifth inning came to its end.
While there was a relatively great performance by Carpenter, the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen had a two-run homer in the seventh inning to level the score for the Pirates which put a sensational twist to the game.
Jose Veras pitched a strong eighth inning to keep the Pirates afloat and Arthur Rhodes had a safe inning for St. Louis. The Cardinals’ hitter Nick Punto doubled to deep-centre at a crucial time in the ninth to give them a credible lead followed by a run
coming off Albert Pujols’ bat.
Jason Motte pitched a shut-out ninth to end the game with a 6-4 victory for the Cardinals.
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