ST. LOUIS — With one swing, Austin Meadows erased eight innings worth of frustration for the Pirates' offense. Meadows, recalled only 15 days earlier as a short-term fill-in for Starling Marte, pulled an inside fastball 369 feet down the right-field line and over the wall to tie the game in the ninth inning Saturday afternoon.
It was the second time in three days the Pirates hit a home run off Cardinals closer Bud Norris; however, this too had a gut-wrenching ending. Richard Rodriguez, entering with the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, threw a hanging slider down the middle that Kolten Wong hit over the wall in right field.
The walkoff home run — Wong's third against the Pirates — gave the Cardinals a 3-2 win. It dropped the Pirates' record to 30-28, 6 1/2 games back of the first-place Brewers in the Central Division, and prevented them from winning back-to-back games for the first time since May 17.
Although they'll need a win Sunday to avoid losing a fourth consecutive series, Clint Hurdle expressed confidence the Pirates are close to a breakthrough.
"We’ve pitched it better," Hurdle said. "That’s going to help everything. We pitched it better. ... We’ve had some good swings. We’ve had some battles in the box. We’ve had some good baserunning. We’ve made some good defensive plays. I think the big picture is this team likes to fight and it likes to play. They bounce back well."
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOChad Kuhl, making his 12th start of the season, allowed four hits in six innings to lower his ERA to 3.86. The Pirates have received six or more innings from their starters in three of their last four games, including eight scoreless innings from Jameson Taillon Friday night.
Although the offense had only five hits Saturday, they chased Cardinals starter Luke Weaver after five innings by forcing the right-hander to throw 90 pitches, including 23 in the fifth inning, which began with Colin Moran's leadoff, game-tying home run to right field.
"We're all getting closer," Moran said. "You can see that."
The Cardinals (31-25) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Marcell Ozuna homered to the grassy knoll beyond the wall in center field. Kuhl couldn't capitalize on Moran's home run, though. He walked two of the first three hitters he faced in the bottom of the fifth, including Weaver, before allowing an RBI single to Tommy Pham.
Kuhl settled in and retired the last four batters he faced to keep the deficit at one. The 25-year-old has pitched through the sixth inning in three consecutive starts, and he described that progress as the product of work he and Ray Searage did to slow down his delivery. That has allowed him to better control his four-seam fastball, sinker, curveball and slider.
Kuhl, who allowed two earned runs, would previously speed up the delivery when facing a batter with runners in scoring position; however, he stuck with the adjustment in the fifth inning to get Ozuna to roll over on a sinker, stranding two runners on base following Pham's single.
"Yeah, I'm heading in the right direction," Kuhl said. "It's all about my delivery. I think that's been the biggest thing. When things go haywire, my delivery has stayed intact."
That's also allowed him to better attack left-handed hitters. Entering the game, lefties had batted .286 with an .887 OPS against Kuhl in his 56 career starts. As a result, the Cardinals stacked the top of their order with two left-handed bats and started Wong at second base. Kuhl held the Cardinals' left-handers to a combined 1 for 10 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
The Pirates' starters have combined for a 3.11 ERA since May 25 — the second-lowest mark in the National League — but the bullpen has a 7.13 ERA during that span. That's resulted in four wins and six losses. Tyler Glasnow and Kyle Crick each pitched a scoreless inning against the Cardinals.
Rodriguez, against whom lefties were batting only .174 against entering the game, then hung the slider on the third pitch of the ninth inning:
"He hung a breaking ball over the middle of the plate and Wong hit it out of the ballpark," Hurdle said. "Not the result we wanted. Two times for shutdown innings we needed in the fifth and ninth we didn’t get one in either spot."
The Pirates had only five hits Saturday, but Jordy Mercer, David Freese and Josh Harrison hit consecutive fly balls in the eighth that were caught at the warning track in left. They stranded a runner on third in the third inning and Elias Diaz drove a ball to the warning track in right-center for the third out of the seventh.
The offense has batted only .257 over the past three games, including only four hits in 25 at-bats with runners in scoring position, yet the Pirates forced the Cardinals' three starters to average more than four pitches per plate appearance.
That allowed them to face a struggling bullpen in key situations. This time, it was Meadows who came through. Meadows, named the National League Rookie of the Month despite having played only 13 games in May, lined out in the first inning on a fastball on the hands. The 23-year-old outfielder saw more inside fastballs in the third and sixth inning.
Then, leading off the ninth inning facing a one-run deficit, Meadows was waiting for the inside fastball and Norris threw him one:
That was Meadows' fifth home run in 47 at-bats — Josh Bell has only four in 210 at-bats — and it silenced the announced crowd of 44,492. "He threw one a little inside, and I was able to get to it," Meadows said. "For me, I was just trying to get on base, hit the ball hard and get on base."
Hurdle said he's "enjoying watching the ride" since Meadows was recalled. On the other hand, the Pirates are 4-11 in that span, despite Meadows hitting .404 with eight RBIs. They were in first place only 15 days ago and have since fallen three games back in the Wild Card race.
1. Maybe Meadows is here to stay after all.
Hurdle is determined to get Meadows adequate playing time. He's made that abundantly clear in recent days and repeated that sentiment following the Pirates' 11th loss in their past 15 games. After all, the team's former top prospect has a 1.261 OPS in 14 games. He's had multiple hits in five of his last eight starts and has hit safely in nine of his first 12 major-league starts.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the fifth player in the majors since 1961 to bat at least .400 and hit at least four home runs in his first 40 at-bats, joining Albert Pujols, Jeff Francoeur, Brian Giles and Yasiel Puig.
Beyond the numbers, Meadows approaches each at-bat like a professional. He watches closely when teammates are at the plate, particularly left-handers. He looks for any weakness a pitcher may show and any information he can use later in the game. Meadows didn't need to use that visual study on Saturday.
Weaver showed him the Cardinals' game plan from the onset. They wanted to pitch Meadows inside, and it worked in the first inning when he lined out to the shortstop. But he shortened his swing in the ninth inning to be able to turn on that 95-mph four-seam fastball from Norris.
Left-handers were batting only .154 against Norris entering the game. "From the get-go, I kind of knew what they wanted to do against me," Meadows said. "That was able to set me up for the last at-bat."
The Pirates will want to give Marte, Corey Dickerson and Gregory Polanco enough rest to be able to contribute late in the season. It's reasonable to think Hurdle can and will find time for Meadows to play seven out of every ten days. He might not have a choice. Meadows has played his way onto the 25-man roster, and the Pirates can no longer afford to send him back to Indianapolis.
"He’s done some things that make you happy for him," Hurdle said. "There’s a lot of people in our minor-league development system that are happy for him, that have touched him along the way. We told you we’re going to play him when we got him up here. We’ll find spots for him. It’s a big swing late in the game in a great place to play baseball."
2. Diaz makes a gutsy throw to second.
Prior to an injury-shortened 2016 season, Diaz was regarded as one of the best up-and-coming catchers in all of baseball. In 2015, his fifth season in the United States, Diaz won Baseball America's "Captain's Catcher" award, given to the best defensive catcher in all of minor league baseball. He made 60 starts for Triple-A Indianapolis that season, throwing out 14 of 46 base runners.
However, Diaz has struggled with throws to second base, allowing nine of 12 stolen base attempts. He's worked with bench coach Tom Prince well before batting practice on making difficult throws on balls in the dirt, as well as from his knees. His miscues haven't shaken his confidence, as he illustrated with a gutsy throw in the seventh inning.
With a runner on first, reliever Austin Gomber laid down a bunt that rolled towards first base and just on the edge of the infield grass. Diaz flipped his helmet off, collected the ball and threw to second on one foot to get the lead runner. Glasnow retired the next two hitters for a scoreless seventh inning.
3. Moran fighting back.
Moran has proven to have staying power in the major leagues. He hasn't gone hitless for more than two consecutive games this season and has battled back after encountering a 3-for-25 slump. The 25-year-old third baseman was eight for his last 21 entering the game and has raised his batting average to .277 in 159 at-bats.
Although he has flaws, Moran has shown patience at the plate, waiting on a pitcher to make a mistake he can do damage with. That occurred in the fifth inning when Weaver threw a changeup down the middle that Moran hit an estimated 392 feet to right for his fifth home run of the season.
"That’s the goal: not to miss it when you get your pitch," he said. "I feel like I've missed too many lately. It was nice to get a mistake and put a good swing on it."
Despite the slump, Moran still batted .268 in May and has a .310 average with 19 RBIs while batting with runners in scoring position. The ability to make adjustments throughout a season is paramount. It's still a small sample size, but Moran has shown promise in the first half and has earned the trust of Hurdle, who chose to allow Moran to hit against Gomber, a lefty, in the seventh inning.
"Another guy we're enjoying watching the ride," Hurdle said. "He studies, he pays attention. It's the highest level he's played at for any extended period of time. He takes the at-bats personally."