Pirates 8, Cardinals 3: Early support plenty for Mitch Keller

THE ASYLUM

St. Louis

Pirates 8, Cardinals 3: Early support plenty for Keller

GETTY

Henry Davis hits a home run in the third inning of Tuesday night's game at Busch Stadium.

The first six batters to face Andre Pallante each reached base and the Pirates produced a five-run first inning en route to providing plenty of support for Mitch Keller and company in an 8-3 win tonight at Busch Stadium.

Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski each contributed with an RBI double in the first, while Andrew McCutchen drove in two runs with a single. Henry Davis also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly before homering in the third. Reynolds, Spencer Horwitz, Jared Triolo and Isiah Kiner-Falefa each finished with multi-hit efforts to pace the 11-hit attack.

The offense helped complement a strong pitching performance by Keller. He allowed three runs on three hits and a walk while striking out a season-high nine batters over six innings to produce his 16th quality start of the season. Kyle Nicolas covered two scoreless innings out of the bullpen and Isaac Mattson closed out the win in the ninth.

"Mitch threw the ball great," Reynolds said. "We gave him a big cushion early. He just attacked and we were not on defense for long, which helps the offense, too.”