Big eighth inning carries Cardinals
Break open 2-2 game against bullpen
Richard Rodriguez made a pitch he’ll likely regret and Marcell Ozuna deposited it into the bleachers in the eighth inning Friday night to spark the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-2 victory against the reeling Pirates.
The game was tied at 2-2 before Rodriguez entered the game.
Dexter Fowler doubled to start the eighth. Paul Goldschmidt drove Fowler in with a oneout single that deflected off Kevin Newman at shortstop to give the Cardinals a one-run lead. Ozuna crushed a ball for a two-run home run and the Cardinals were up, 5-3. The Pirates should have been out of the inning with the score at 5-3 if not for a Jose Osuna error that extended the inning and knocked Rodriguez out of the game.
Matt Carpenter hit a sacrifice fly off Geoff Hartlieb for the Cardinals’ sixth run and fourth of the inning. Rodriguez had not allowed a home run since May 30.
The loss was the 22nd in 26 since games since the All-Star break. The bullpen blowup also wasted a strong outing by starter Chris Archer who had nine strikeouts.
Archer and the Pirates averted potential disaster in the first after Fowler, Tommy Edman, and Goldschmidt all singled to load the bases with no outs.
Newman made a sound play on a grounder off Ozuna’s bat to turn a double play. Fowler scored from third to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead with two outs. Archer recorded his first strikeout five pitches later against Paul DeJong to end the inning.
Josh Bell hit his 100th career double to lead off the second. It was Bell’s first game back since Pirates manager Clint Hurdle gave him the previous two games off. Bell entered the contest with 29 hits since the previous time he had multiple hits in a game July 26.
Bell moved to third on a wild pitch. Osuna scored Bell on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one.
In the fourth, Bell doubled before Osuna’s singled to mark his 10th game in the past 11 with a base hit. Colin Moran drove Bell in with a sacrifice fly to give the Pirates a 2-1 advantage.
Archer started the fourth by recording strikeouts against Ozuna and DeJong.
Carpenter had a two-out double. and the Cardinals tied the games thanks to infield singles by Kolten Wong and Matt Wieters. Wieters’ hit brought in Carpenter.