Adams singles in 10th to win it
ST. LOUIS — An intentional walk to Matt Holliday set up Matt Adams’ game-winning single and the Pirates lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1, in 10 innings Friday night at Busch Stadium.
With two outs in the 10th, Jon Jay singled against Rob Scahill. Matt Carpenter followed with a double to right field, moving the winning run to third. Due up was Holliday, a right-handed batter who was 3 for 3 with a homer, double and walk against the right-handed Scahill. Adams, a left-hander, was 0 for 1 with a walk. Both left-handed relievers, Antonio Bastardo and Tony Watson, already had pitched, and both hitters hit righties well in their careers.
“Thought we’d take a shot at a guy that hadn’t seen him,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Didn’t work.”
But Adams had seen Scahill in the minors, several times, at the Class AA and AAA levels.
“It’s a matchup that I like,” Scahill said. “I like throwing against him. I made a good pitch. He put a good swing on it. He’s a professional hitter, one of their hottest.”
Adams singled to left, scoring the winning run.
The Pirates needed four relievers to get through the seventh, where a successful Cardinals challenge, a double steal and Arquimedes Caminero’s two baserunners allowed the Cardinals to tie the score. Caminero allowed a leadoff single to Jhonny Peralta and walked Jason Heyward. He got Yadier Molina to line out softly to Jordy Mercer, who appeared to double off Peralta at second, but Cardinals manager Mike Matheny challenged. Officials in the replay command center overturned the call and Peralta stay in scoring position.
Antonio Bastardo retired the one batter he faced, striking out Kolten Wong looking, but Peralta and Heyward stole third and second without a throw.
Jared Hughes entered to face pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds. He induced two foul grounders and a weak grounder up the middle, but it found a hole in the shifted infield and became a tying RBI single.
For six innings, everything was coming up A.J. If six scoreless innings against the St. Louis Cardinals weren’t enough, Burnett helped control the Cardinals running game, singled home a run and passed Sandy Koufax on the alltime strikeout list. He allowed two hits, walked three and struck out seven. His ERA fell to 1.45.
“Solid, but need to get deeper into games,” Burnett said of his body of work. “As a starter you need to get in that seventh, you need to sniff that eighth every once in a while.”
Burnett’s final strikeout gave him 2,397 in his 17year career, one more than Koufax, a Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers lefthander, amassed in 12 seasons, three of which resulted in Cy Young awards and one in a National League MVP.
“That just means I’m old, man,” Burnett said.
Lance Lynn retired the first nine Pirates he faced and struck out four of them, including the side in the third. That streak ended when Gregory Polanco led off the fourth with a single, but a double play ensured that Lynn continued to face the minimum. He struck out seven through five innings.
Lynn cracked in the sixth, but the Pirates only barely took advantage. In an inning when the Pirates sent seven batters to the plate, made Lynn throw 32 pitches and loaded the bases with no outs, they scored only once, and that was before the bases were loaded.
Francisco Cervelli singled and Jordy Mercer doubled. With the infield drawn in, Burnett hit an RBI grounder up the middle. Polanco walked to load the bases.
After an 11-pitch at-bat, Josh Harrison popped out. Andrew McCutchen struck out looking at a borderline inside fastball and Neil Walker struck out swinging to leave the bases loaded.
“The game’s already tough,” McCutchen said of his called strike three. “You get stuff like that and it makes it even tougher.”