St. Louis Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Pirates Match Player Stats On Sep 23, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 23, 2017

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Pirates used an eight-run first inning Saturday night to put a dent in the St. Louis Cardinals' push for a playoff spot with an 11-6 win at PNC Park.

St. Louis (81-73), which had its winning streak stopped at four, missed a chance to move into second place in the National League Central. The Cardinals trail the Milwaukee Brewers by a half-game and the first-place Chicago Cubs by five.

The Cardinals were 1 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot entering the day pending the Colorado outcome later Saturday.

Jordy Mercer was 3-for-3 with four RBIs, David Freese had three RBIs and Starling Marte added two RBIs for Pittsburgh (70-85), which is reduced to a spoiler role.

The eight-run first, when Pittsburgh sent 12 players to the plate and took an 8-2 lead, was highlighted by Mercer's two-run triple, Marte's RBI triple, Freese's leadoff double and four singles.

St. Louis starter Lance Lynn (11-8) was charged with all eight runs, six that crossed the plate while he was on the mound and two that Josh Lucas inherited.

Lynn's pitching line was like something from a nightmare -- eight runs and six hits with two walks and a strikeout in two-thirds of an inning. He has one win in his past nine starts.

Pittsburgh bumped its lead to 10-3 through five innings before St. Louis scored three in the sixth -- including tying a major league record by using six pinch hitters in the inning -- to close to 10-6.

Freese added an RBI double in the eighth to make it 11-6.

Pittsburgh starter Gerrit Cole (12-11) allowed five runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings with one walk and five strikeouts to break an 0-3 streak at home. He had gotten just five runs of support in his previous five starts, totaling 32 innings, but had plenty Saturday.

St. Louis' first inning looked promising with Tommy Pham hitting his 22nd homer, a two-run shot to dead center, but that was dwarfed by what the Pirates did in the bottom of the inning.

Pittsburgh's key hit that inning came from Mercer. He stepped to the plate with a 3-2 lead, the bases loaded and one out. He looped the ball into shallow center, where Dexter Fowler raced in and dived forward but missed, letting the ball get behind him.

It appeared that Mercer might have a shot at an inside-the-park homer, but he had to hold up at third with a still-impressive bases-clearing triple.

The Cardinals made it 8-3 on Pham's RBI double in the third, but Pittsburgh answered in the bottom of the third against Adam Wainwright when Marte's sacrifice fly made it 9-3.

The Pirates reached double figures in the fifth on Mercer's RBI double, making it 10-3.

NOTES: St. Louis 1B Jose Martinez, who left Friday in the seventh because of a sprained left thumb, had tests in St. Louis that showed no serious damage, manager Mike Matheny said. ... Matt Carpenter moved from 3B to 1B for the Cardinals, with Jedd Gyorko returning to his normal spot at 3B. ... Pittsburgh OF Jordan Luplow was named the organization's minor league player of the year and LHP Steven Brault the minor league pitcher of the year.