Pirates fail to finish off sweep in St. Louis, 8-4
for the first time since April 18 in St. Louis, ending a span of 11 starts of five innings or fewer. The reason a silver lining might matter, however, was Kuhl lasted only two batters into the sixth. A homer. A double. And, shortly,a tie game.
“If you want to develop starting pitching, you don’t develop five-inning pitchers,” Hurdle said of Kuhl, whose ERA after 15 starts is 5.58. “He worked to get that opportunity.”
Left-hander Tony Watson permitted an inherited runner to score on pinch-hitter Jedd Gyorko’s RBI double in the sixth. The lion’s share of the damage was done against Nicasio in the seventh. He walked the first two batters. A run scored on Molina’s single, another on Jordy Mercer’s fielding error and two more on Paul DeJong’s two-run single off relieverJhan Marinez.
Nicasio spent 28 pitches recording one out. His ERA has risen from 1.23 to 3.16 in his five appearances, contributing alongside veterans Watson and Daniel Hudson to put the Pirates in a positionwhere their only trusted reliever is left-hander Felipe Rivero.
“Just too many pitches,” Hurdle said. “The two walks painted [Nicasio] in a bad corner.”
Cardinals right-hander Mike Leake was charged withfour runs, three earned, in six innings. A result, Hurdle acknowledged, the Pirates “don’t do often” against Leake. It was insufficient.
The Cardinals (33-41) opened the scoring with a two-run second inning which nearly was far worse. Three consecutive singles, including two infield singles — one smashed, one soft — to shortstop, loaded the bases with no outs. A foul pop fly was the first out, and GregGarcia shot a line-drive single to center field, scoring RandalGrichuk and Molina, whohad three hits.
The Pirates thundered back in the third, their offense awakening against Leake. Mercer walked leading off, and Elias Diaz sliced a double into the right-field corner. After Kuhl struck out, Adam Frazier ripped a two-strike cutter up the gap for a two-run triple, knotting the score. Josh Harrison followed with a sacrifice fly to center field, putting the Pirates ahead, 3-2.
Kuhl, meanwhile, had settled in after the 31-pitch second inning. He retired nine batters in a row from the end of the second inning to the start of the fifth. Kuhl struck out Tommy Pham and induceda fly ball from Stephen Piscotty to end a fifth-inning jam. At 88 pitches, Kuhl was poised to pitch into the sixth inning.
Poised, perhaps, but not prepared.
Grichuk, who earlier in the day was called up from Class AAA Memphis, keyed on Kuhl’s slider, a pitch he had leaned on for the first five innings. On Kuhl’s 2-2 delivery, Grichuk identified the slider spinning toward the inner half and pulverized it. The baseball went an estimated 478 feet and landed in the second deck.
“Went to the well one too many times,” Kuhl said of the slider, “and he got it.”