Pirates Beat Cardinals Twice in Extra Innings

After a very slow start to their season, the Pittsburgh Pirates have momentum going into the All Star break. The 2nd place (in the National League Central ) Pirates closed out the first half of the schedule with a key four game series against the 1st place St. Louis Cardinals in Pittsburgh.

The Cardinals won the first game 4-1, while the Pirates won the second game 5-2. In Game 3 on July 11th, the Pirates tied the score 3-3 in the eighth and the game went into extra innings. St. Louis took a one run lead in the 10th on a home run, but Pittsburgh tied it again in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the 14th, the Cardinals again scored to take a 5-4 lead. Then in the bottom of the 14th, Neil Walker singled off reliever Nick Greenwood, the Cardinals’ eighth pitcher of the night. Andrew McCutcheon then stepped to the plate:

Game 4 on July 12th was tied 3-3 going into the 10th inning. The Cardinals scored two runs on a double by Randal Grichuk in the top of the 10th. St. Louis brought closer Trevor Rosenthal in to pitch the bottom of the 10th. Rosenthal gave up a base hit, but retired the next two batters. But the Pirates drove in two runs on three straight singles to tie it up at 5-5. Pinch hitter Travis Ishikawa then walked, bringing up Gregory Polanco:

By taking three of four games against the Cardinals (56-33), the Pirates (53-35) closed to within 2 ½ games of the division leaders. The Pirates also have the second best record in the National League going into the break.