• That's a really close play. Tough to say whether he was safe or not from the replay. The Pirates might benefit from the call on the field.
• Another spectacular play, Scott hits a ground ball to Horwitz, who comes in on it and goes to the plate to cut down Fermín. It's under review.
• Pozo just caught a curveball out front there. Bednar left it too high in the zone
• Pozo doubles down the left-field line and it ricochets off the fence in foul territory. Canario slips while going after it. Runners on first and third, one out.
• Yohel Pozo hits for Pages.
• He misses with two more pitches and Davis goes out to the mound to calm him down. Kelly shakes his head in approval from the dugout.
• Can't have an at-bat like that here in the ninth. Bednar had three pitches in the zone but everything else missed wildly.
• Alexander Canario has also entered to play left field.
• Bednar set to face 6-7-8 in the order.
• End of eighth inning: McCutchen strikes out and strands two runners. But, the Pirates are ahead entering the ninth and Renegade is being played as David Bednar trots out of the bullpen.
• Another key moment here has Burleson can't scoop a throw from Winn and IKF beats it out. Runners on first and third.
• RUN: Davis breaks the tie with a sacrifice fly to left center. Hayes comes home, Frazier stays at second. Pirates, 1-0
• Frazier proceeds to double down the right field line and Hayes holds at third. That was barely fair. Big moment for Davis.
• Adam Frazier is now hitting for Pham after Hayes singles into right.
• Phil Maton enters for Pallante, who finished with 7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. He threw 94 pitches.
• Another solid defensive play by the outfield. Cruz ranges a long way to make that catch and strand runners on first and second. Cardinals are 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
• Pham is playing some great defense. He went a long way for that one in left. Two away.
• Mattson continues with the fastball trend. He's thrown 13 pitches so far, 10 have been fastballs. He's just going after guys.
• The offense fails to generate anything again. They still only have one hit tonight as we enter the eighth. Isaac Mattson now comes on.
• That second called strike on Cruz missed terribly.
• Another McCutchen walk, another McCutchen bat flip.
• A: 19,631
• Ferguson gets out of it. He struck out Pages with a nice sequence to draw a swing on an outside slurve after going below the zone with a cutter. He then gets Scott to ground out to short.
• Ferguson now finds himself in a jam with one out.. Probably the biggest of the game with Fermín on third after a Nootbaar groundout.
• Cruz, IKF and Gonzales all converge on a ball in shallow center field. Gonzales goes after it and it bounces off his glove. Fermín ends up on second.
• End of sixth inning: Horwitz strikes out for the second time tonight. He's accounted for both of the Pirates' strikeouts tonight.
• IKF saw seven pitches in that at-bat, can't remember a lot of Pirates that have seen that many pitches tonight. Pallante is 72 pitches with two outs in the sixth. He's been in and around the zone all night.
• Contreras left tonight's game with a left-hand contusion. His X-rays were negative and his status is day-to-day.
• Ferguson works a quick 1-2-3 inning and uses seven pitches to get one strikeout and two groundouts. Nice efficiency there as he was aggressive and in the zone. Threw one pitch outside of it.
• The Pirates went down in order again during that last inning. They are making contact, balls just aren't falling or they are hit right at someone. Scott made a really nice catch to rob Pham of a hit to end the fifth. Just good defense being played tonight.
• And it's going to be Ferguson. Skenes finishes with 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks and 88 pitches. The Cardinals fouled off 25 pitches and put 13 in play.
• Caleb Ferguson is up in the pen. The Cardinals have at least two lefties due up this inning.
• Skenes works his first 1-2-3 inning of the game and it takes 13 pitches. He's up to 88 pitches. The bullpen is stirring. We'll see if he's got another inning in him, or at least part of one.
• End of fourth inning: Man, Winn proves what he's capable of again. Makes a really nice backhanded stop and guns down Gonzales at first.
• McCutchen gets the Pirates in the hit column, but he's quickly erased by a 4-6-3 double play. It was reviewed but Reynolds didn't even wait for the official call. He just walked right off the field.
• The Cardinals are making Skenes work tonight. He's thrown 75 pitches, but 24 have been fouled off and 11 have been put in play. He's only drawn five whiffs tonight.
• Contreras has now exited the game. Burleson has moved to first and Garrett Hampson has entered in right.
• What a throw by Pham to cut down Contreras at the plate on a single to left field. Absolutely gunned him down by at least a few feet. Smart decision by Hayes to let it go through and save another run. The bats may not be showing up for Skenes, but the defense sure is.
• Skenes is already at 70 pitches with one out here in the fourth. Can't imagine he can work deep into the game at this point.
• Fermín pops up a bunt and Skenes scatters off the mound to catch it. He almost collided with Horwitz in the process. Big out with runners on first and second.
• Fans are booing Contreras as he takes his time getting checked out. He takes his batting gloves off and digs in at first.
• Can't imagine how Contreras feels right now. That was 99 mph in on the hands. Yikes! He's being attended to at first. Walked slowly all the way down the line.
• End of third inning: Another sub-10 pitch inning for Pallante as the Pirates go 1-2-3. The Pirates have scored an average of two runs per game when Skenes is in the game this year.
• WOW! Another heads-up play by IKF. He caught a linedrive from Burleson, checked Scott at third and fired to first to double off Donovan. Gets Skenes out of a big jam right there and potentially saves a run. Nice catch by Horwitz on the backend, too.
Oh, you have runners on the corners with no outs against Paul Skenes? Good luck with that.
• Scott barely beat a diving Horwitz to the bag there, and I mean barely.
• First time during this four-game winning streak that the Pirates haven't had a hit in the first two innings.
• End of second inning: Pirates go down in order, quickly. Pallante used eight pitches.
• Skenes uses a nice sequence to catch Pages looking. Went away with a sweeper, trying to get him to chase and then came back with a splinker that catches the bottom of the zone.
• Skenes just missed with a 2-2 changeup and a 3-2 splinker below the zone, handing out his first free pass to Nootbar. He's already at 30 pitches. I feel like those are the situations where you have to go right at guys to be more efficient.
• Skenes absolutely fooled Fermín with a third-pitch curveball before inducing a 5-3 groundout. One of the worst swings of the day so far before going to a slider on the outer edge. There are two away.
• End of first inning: First-base umpire Stu Scheurwater got a few boos for that checked swing call on Gonzales. But he indeed went after seeing the replay. His groundout to short turns it back over to Skenes.
• Gotta love a McCutchen bat toss after drawing a walk. The best in the game. Pallante didn't really offer him anything good outside of a fastball on the outside edge and McCutchen didn't bite at anything outside the zone.
• Horwitz grounds out to second base here to start off the bottom half.
• Skenes strands Winn as he gets Contreras to line out to Reynolds. It took 12 pitches.
• Burleson pokes a soft ground ball to Hayes for an easy out. Two away, but Winn is standing on third.
• Winn then punishes a first-pitch fastball down the middle off the short wall in left field for a double.
• Yup, that's a nice way to start it. Skenes pumps a 100 mph fastball past Donovan to end a seven-pitch at-bat.
• First pitch: Pirates vs. Cardinals, Paul Skenes to Brendan Donovan, PNC Park, 6:42 p.m., 77 degrees, cloudy
• Don Kelly’s lineup:
1. Spencer Horwitz, 1B 2. Andrew McCutchen, DH 3. Bryan Reynolds, RF 4. Nick Gonzales, 2B 5. Oneil Cruz, CF 6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B 7. Tommy Pham, LF 8. Henry Davis, C 9. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
• For Oliver Marmol's visitors:
1. Brendan Donovan, 2B 2. Masyn Winn, SS 3. Alec Burleson, RF 4. Willson Contreras, 1B 5. Nolan Gorman, 3B 6. José Fermín, DH 7. Lars Nootbaar, LF 8. Pedro Pagés, C 9. Victor Scott II, CF
THE ASYLUM
Final: Pirates 1, Cardinals 0
• Who: Pirates (36-50) vs. Cardinals (47-39)
• What: MLB regular season, Game 87
• When: 6:40 p.m.
• Where: PNC Park
• Weather: 76°, cloudy
• Pitchers: RHP Paul Skenes (4-7, 2.12 ERA) vs. RHP Andre Pallante (5-4, 4.43 ERA)
• TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
• Radio: Pirates Radio Network
• Streaming: SNP360, MLB.TV
• Satellite: SiriusXM 178/861/865
• Boxscore: MLB.com
• Media notes: Pirates | Cardinals
► FOLLOW ALONG
• Curveball, bottom right corner of the zone. Bednar's bread and butter. Final: Pirates 1, Cardinals 0. One run is enough on this occasion.
• Call on the field stands. Fermín is out at home, runners on first and third, two outs.
• That's a really close play. Tough to say whether he was safe or not from the replay. The Pirates might benefit from the call on the field.
• Another spectacular play, Scott hits a ground ball to Horwitz, who comes in on it and goes to the plate to cut down Fermín. It's under review.
• Pozo just caught a curveball out front there. Bednar left it too high in the zone
• Pozo doubles down the left-field line and it ricochets off the fence in foul territory. Canario slips while going after it. Runners on first and third, one out.
• Yohel Pozo hits for Pages.
• He misses with two more pitches and Davis goes out to the mound to calm him down. Kelly shakes his head in approval from the dugout.
• Can't have an at-bat like that here in the ninth. Bednar had three pitches in the zone but everything else missed wildly.
• Alexander Canario has also entered to play left field.
• Bednar set to face 6-7-8 in the order.
• End of eighth inning: McCutchen strikes out and strands two runners. But, the Pirates are ahead entering the ninth and Renegade is being played as David Bednar trots out of the bullpen.
• Another key moment here has Burleson can't scoop a throw from Winn and IKF beats it out. Runners on first and third.
• RUN: Davis breaks the tie with a sacrifice fly to left center. Hayes comes home, Frazier stays at second. Pirates, 1-0
• Frazier proceeds to double down the right field line and Hayes holds at third. That was barely fair. Big moment for Davis.
• Adam Frazier is now hitting for Pham after Hayes singles into right.
• Phil Maton enters for Pallante, who finished with 7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 3 Ks. He threw 94 pitches.
• Another solid defensive play by the outfield. Cruz ranges a long way to make that catch and strand runners on first and second. Cardinals are 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position.
• Pham is playing some great defense. He went a long way for that one in left. Two away.
• Mattson continues with the fastball trend. He's thrown 13 pitches so far, 10 have been fastballs. He's just going after guys.
• The offense fails to generate anything again. They still only have one hit tonight as we enter the eighth. Isaac Mattson now comes on.
• That second called strike on Cruz missed terribly.
• Another McCutchen walk, another McCutchen bat flip.
• A: 19,631
• Ferguson gets out of it. He struck out Pages with a nice sequence to draw a swing on an outside slurve after going below the zone with a cutter. He then gets Scott to ground out to short.
• Ferguson now finds himself in a jam with one out.. Probably the biggest of the game with Fermín on third after a Nootbaar groundout.
• Cruz, IKF and Gonzales all converge on a ball in shallow center field. Gonzales goes after it and it bounces off his glove. Fermín ends up on second.
• End of sixth inning: Horwitz strikes out for the second time tonight. He's accounted for both of the Pirates' strikeouts tonight.
• IKF saw seven pitches in that at-bat, can't remember a lot of Pirates that have seen that many pitches tonight. Pallante is 72 pitches with two outs in the sixth. He's been in and around the zone all night.
• Contreras left tonight's game with a left-hand contusion. His X-rays were negative and his status is day-to-day.
• Ferguson works a quick 1-2-3 inning and uses seven pitches to get one strikeout and two groundouts. Nice efficiency there as he was aggressive and in the zone. Threw one pitch outside of it.
• The Pirates went down in order again during that last inning. They are making contact, balls just aren't falling or they are hit right at someone. Scott made a really nice catch to rob Pham of a hit to end the fifth. Just good defense being played tonight.
• And it's going to be Ferguson. Skenes finishes with 5 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks and 88 pitches. The Cardinals fouled off 25 pitches and put 13 in play.
• Caleb Ferguson is up in the pen. The Cardinals have at least two lefties due up this inning.
• Skenes works his first 1-2-3 inning of the game and it takes 13 pitches. He's up to 88 pitches. The bullpen is stirring. We'll see if he's got another inning in him, or at least part of one.
• End of fourth inning: Man, Winn proves what he's capable of again. Makes a really nice backhanded stop and guns down Gonzales at first.
• McCutchen gets the Pirates in the hit column, but he's quickly erased by a 4-6-3 double play. It was reviewed but Reynolds didn't even wait for the official call. He just walked right off the field.
• The Cardinals are making Skenes work tonight. He's thrown 75 pitches, but 24 have been fouled off and 11 have been put in play. He's only drawn five whiffs tonight.
• Contreras has now exited the game. Burleson has moved to first and Garrett Hampson has entered in right.
• What a throw by Pham to cut down Contreras at the plate on a single to left field. Absolutely gunned him down by at least a few feet. Smart decision by Hayes to let it go through and save another run. The bats may not be showing up for Skenes, but the defense sure is.
• Skenes is already at 70 pitches with one out here in the fourth. Can't imagine he can work deep into the game at this point.
• Fermín pops up a bunt and Skenes scatters off the mound to catch it. He almost collided with Horwitz in the process. Big out with runners on first and second.
• Fans are booing Contreras as he takes his time getting checked out. He takes his batting gloves off and digs in at first.
• Can't imagine how Contreras feels right now. That was 99 mph in on the hands. Yikes! He's being attended to at first. Walked slowly all the way down the line.
• End of third inning: Another sub-10 pitch inning for Pallante as the Pirates go 1-2-3. The Pirates have scored an average of two runs per game when Skenes is in the game this year.
• WOW! Another heads-up play by IKF. He caught a linedrive from Burleson, checked Scott at third and fired to first to double off Donovan. Gets Skenes out of a big jam right there and potentially saves a run. Nice catch by Horwitz on the backend, too.
• Scott barely beat a diving Horwitz to the bag there, and I mean barely.
• First time during this four-game winning streak that the Pirates haven't had a hit in the first two innings.
• End of second inning: Pirates go down in order, quickly. Pallante used eight pitches.
• Skenes uses a nice sequence to catch Pages looking. Went away with a sweeper, trying to get him to chase and then came back with a splinker that catches the bottom of the zone.
• Skenes just missed with a 2-2 changeup and a 3-2 splinker below the zone, handing out his first free pass to Nootbar. He's already at 30 pitches. I feel like those are the situations where you have to go right at guys to be more efficient.
• Skenes absolutely fooled Fermín with a third-pitch curveball before inducing a 5-3 groundout. One of the worst swings of the day so far before going to a slider on the outer edge. There are two away.
• End of first inning: First-base umpire Stu Scheurwater got a few boos for that checked swing call on Gonzales. But he indeed went after seeing the replay. His groundout to short turns it back over to Skenes.
• Gotta love a McCutchen bat toss after drawing a walk. The best in the game.
Pallante didn't really offer him anything good outside of a fastball on the outside edge and McCutchen didn't bite at anything outside the zone.
• Horwitz grounds out to second base here to start off the bottom half.
• Skenes strands Winn as he gets Contreras to line out to Reynolds. It took 12 pitches.
• Burleson pokes a soft ground ball to Hayes for an easy out. Two away, but Winn is standing on third.
• Winn then punishes a first-pitch fastball down the middle off the short wall in left field for a double.
• Yup, that's a nice way to start it. Skenes pumps a 100 mph fastball past Donovan to end a seven-pitch at-bat.
• First pitch: Pirates vs. Cardinals, Paul Skenes to Brendan Donovan, PNC Park, 6:42 p.m., 77 degrees, cloudy
• Don Kelly’s lineup:
1. Spencer Horwitz, 1B
2. Andrew McCutchen, DH
3. Bryan Reynolds, RF
4. Nick Gonzales, 2B
5. Oneil Cruz, CF
6. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
7. Tommy Pham, LF
8. Henry Davis, C
9. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, SS
• For Oliver Marmol's visitors:
1. Brendan Donovan, 2B
2. Masyn Winn, SS
3. Alec Burleson, RF
4. Willson Contreras, 1B
5. Nolan Gorman, 3B
6. José Fermín, DH
7. Lars Nootbaar, LF
8. Pedro Pagés, C
9. Victor Scott II, CF
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