Pirates show growth, but Crowe blows save in 10th to Cardinals

ST. LOUIS -- Wil Crowe stood by the pitch choice postgame. Strategy wise, the reasoning was sound.

With the bases loaded and two outs in the 10th inning, Crowe went with a first pitch changeup to the Cardinals' Tommy Edman. He admitted it was probably a bit up, but better up than low and a ball to fall behind. Edman is a bat-to-ball hitter. Get the ground ball and force an 11th inning.

Edman did keep it on the ground, and to the pull side. Perhaps a year ago the shift would have converted it into an out. Instead, it rolled through the infield for a game-winning single, beating the Pirates, 5-4, Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

"Really, pull side ground ball on a first pitch changeup, would have been a strike, is what we're looking for," Crowe said. "It just found a hole today."

Edman's roller spoiled what could have been a big series win against the defending division title. Instead, the Pirates will have to settle with a split in the four-game set, knowing they did plenty of things right. That includes Mitch Keller tossing another quality start -- the sixth straight by this rotation -- the bullpen getting out of several jams on the night and Canaan Smith-Njigba bringing home the go-ahead run in the top of the10th via a productive ground out.

"I think we had a really good series," Keller said. "Came down to the last couple pitches of the game, which we’re in a position to win. I think we’re playing really good."

With the regular season at the first 1/10th mile marker, the Pirates are 9-7. They've hung tough with the defending division champ and World Series champion Astros in their last two series. They also fell short of a series win in both finales. They're far from finished, but in the limited sample size of games, they are noticeably better in terms of pitching, hitting and general execution. 

"We're a good team," Crowe said. "We all believe it. We all come in here today, excited to play the game. Show people who we are and what we can do. We expect to get better. It's not something that just happened because we're 15 games and we're playing well. No, it's what we expect. We don't expect to get run off the field by teams. We don't expect to lose. It's not who we are. We're expecting to win and be in games. I think the further we get into the season, the more you guys, and the more everyone, will see that we're a good ball club."

That's partly what makes Sunday's finale sting.

Duane Underwood Jr., Colin Holderman and David Bednar -- Derek Shelton's go-to leverage arms early in the year -- had all pitched a scoreless frame to force extras after Keller's six innings. Robert Stephenson was unavailable after pitching back-to-back games. Dauri Moreta had pitched in three of the last four games. Rob Zastryzny was placed on the injured list earlier that morning, and Chase De Jong hit the IL earlier in the weekend.

Crowe is in more of a middle-relief role, partially because he has done in a multi-inning role in the past but also because he took 10 losses out of the bullpen last year, five of which came when he entered in the eighth inning or later. But with most of the traditional leverage pitchers either used or not an option, he was the one Shelton turned to with the series win on the line in the 10th.

And perhaps the big catalyst of the inning was not Nolan Gorman's RBI book-rule double to tie the game with one out, but the at-bat before it where Crowe had Wilson Contreras behind in the count 1-2 and floundering at the plate, but eventually lost him and issued a killer walk.

Gorman would tie it up the following batter, Lars Nootbaar was issued an intentional walk, and while Crowe did come through to strike out Jordan Walker and get that Edman ground ball, it was not enough.

"The big thing is walks," Shelton said. "We can’t walk Contreras there. That’s what ends up killing us. When you use your leverage guys in different situations or use them back-to-back days or three-of-four, we get into a situation where we have to execute pitches and we just didn’t."

"I mean, it sucks," Crowe said. "I don't want it to happen, obviously. But, you know, you take your licks."

After the game, Crowe and catcher Austin Hedges talked for a few minutes about what transpired. Crowe felt that he threw the ball well, sans the changeup on Gorman's double. He could hang onto this outing.

"If I throw the ball like that 95% of the time, the ball is gonna fall my way," Crowe said. "Like I said, today, I didn't. I threw the ball well. I felt like the ball was coming out the right way. Just didn't fall my way today. You take your licks, you keep going, you keep moving forward. You keep throwing strikes trying to get guys out, everything will work itself out."

But once again, it means the Pirates are without a potentially defining series win over a champion.

GETTY

Wil Crowe pitches in the 10th inning Sunday.

• Keller was, by his own admission, not as crisp as he wanted to be, but still was able to turn in six innings of three-run ball. That line was spoiled though by a two-out home run by Lars Nootbaar with two outs in the sixth where he was able to turn on a cutter on the hands.

"Lars put a good swing on it," Keller said. "I thought I executed the pitch where I wanted to. He just made a better swing."

Being able to battle through and give good innings without his best stuff has been a separator for Keller this year and the back half of 2022. The adage is there are five games where a pitcher has everything working and five when nothing is working. If this was one of the five without his stuff on a cold and cruddy St. Louis afternoon, that's a more than acceptable result.

"There are gonna be days like today where I don’t have my curveball or whatever it may be," Keller said. "We may have to go cutter heavy or sinker, whatever it may be. Just having the ability to do that is huge for my game planning and during the game, too. If something’s not working, you can scrap it and go for something else."

• That's also six straight quality starts for this rotation, the longest streak for the team since they rattled off eight straight from April 10-19, 2019. 

"It’s the same exact way as people say hitting’s contagious," Keller said. "Day in and day out, as starting pitchers, we notice when other starters are going deep. You gotta follow it. You gotta keep going. Everyone wants to keep following what the last one did and wants to out-do the other one. I think having that mentality is really good for our staff and anyone really. Hitting is contagious. Pitching is contagious. As many zeroes as we can put up, that keeps the snowball going."

The Pirates entered today fourth in the National League in innings pitched by the rotation, now 85 1/3.

• The Pirates' best chance to break the game open came in the seventh inning by loading the bases with two outs. Shelton was able to create a favorable match-up by pinch-hitting Connor Joe for Jack Suwinski as the Cardinals went to left-hander Zack Thompson out of the bullpen, but Joe lined out to center field.

Ke'Bryan Hayes opened the game with a triple and scored on a Bryan Reynolds sacrifice fly, Hedges dropped a two-out RBI single in the second and Brendan Donovan flubbed a Tucupita Marcano rolling for a run in the top of the sixth.

• Ji-Man Choi is probably going to be out longer than the 10 day minimum for his achilles injury, senior vice president of Baseball Operations Bryan Stroh revealed while pinch-hitting for Ben Cherington on the general manager's 93.7 The Fan radio show. Choi has been dealing with soreness since spring training and will be evaluated Monday by the team's ankle specialist.

Zastryzny will also see a specialist for his elbow back in Pittsburgh. Yohan Ramirez was recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis after he allowed one run and struck out 14 over eight innings pitched.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 10-day injured list: 1B Ji-Man Choi (achilles)

• 15-day injured list: RHP Chase De Jong (lumbar spine), Rob Zastryzny (elbow)

• 60-day injured list: RHP JT Brubaker (elbow), SS Oneil Cruz (ankle), LHP Jarlin Garcia (elbow)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
2. Bryan Reynolds, LF
3. Andrew McCutchen, DH
4. Carlos Santana, 1B
5. Canaan Smith-Njigba, RF
6. Jack Suwinski, CF
7. Rodolfo Castro, SS
8. Tucupita Marcano, 2B
9. Austin Hedges, C

And for Oliver Marmol's Cardinals:

1. Brendan Donovan, 2B
2. Alec Burleson, LF
3. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
4. Nolaln Arenado, 3B
5. Wilson Contreras, C
6. Nolan Gorman, DH
7. Lars Nootbaar, CF
8. Jordan Walker, RF
9. Tommy Edman, SS

THE SCHEDULE

Off to Denver. The Pirates will open their three-game series with the Rockies Monday when Rich Hill (0-2, 7.20) takes on Kyle Freeland (2-0, 0.96). First pitch will be at 8:40 p.m. Eastern. I'm flying west for this one.

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