Pirates ride big 1st inning to needed 10-5 win over Cardinals

Wednesday night is the prime pitching matchup of the series with Cy Young candidates Gerrit Cole and Michael Wacha squaring off. The two pitchers are a combined 27-9 this season. “He was all over the place, big knocks, stealing bags – it was a lot of fun to watch”. McCutchen then scored as Jung-Ho Kang grounded to third and Matt Carpenter airmailed the throw to first. “Yadi’s coming out of the box and he sees what happens and he’s thinking three. He’s got guts”.

“Tony has shown the ability to go multiple innings”, manager Clint Hurdle said to reporters following the game. “You don’t expect it. Lance is a guy that usually goes deep into games”, he said, noting the regular work over the course of the year made his quick deployment easier to manage, even with the downtime.

Elvis Andrus hit the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the eighth inning against Casey Fien (2-5) after Adrian Beltre and Moreland started the frame with singles. Those two are tied for the major league lead in wins with Seattle’s Felix Hernandez.

“I felt really good out there”, Wacha said.

Liriano could throw a great game tonight, but the Cardinals are just playing too well right now. “It hasn’t been the easiest few starts”.

Trevor Plouffe’s home run and RBI doubles by Chris Herrmann and Shane Robinson got Minnesota going in a four-run second inning. The ball got past him and to the wall.

Kevin Siegrist came in and for two consecutive innings dazzled the Pirates hitters with his pitching prowess. The Giants began their 2014 title run by first winning a wild card game over the Pirates behind Madison Bumgarner. 500 at 73-40.

St. Louis, which won the first two games in the series, has won the last seven sets between the teams at Busch Stadium.

The Bucs gave themselves some breathing room and partially emptied the Busch Stadium seats with a strong ninth inning, however.

Francisco Liriano (8-6) pitched six innings and gave up three runs and six hits. Pittsburgh left the bases loaded in the fourth and stranded two in the fifth and sixth. He faced St. Louis twice this season as well, but was unable to earn the win in either of his starts. Lynn is 0-1, 4.91 in two starts this year against the Pirates, and is 5-4, 4.74 in 17 career appearances (15 starts) against them.

Pirates: LHP J.A. Happ (0-1, 8.31) will take on RHP Bartolo Colon (10-11, 4.76) in the first of a three-game series against the Mets in New York on Friday.

Polanco had six straight hits, tying the franchise best this season, followed by an intentional walk in the sixth before flying out to open the ninth.

Trainer Todd Tomczyk checked on Marte during his first at-bat of the night, looking at Marte’s left hand, but Marte remained in the game.

The Pirates let the Cardinals get uncomfortably close as Joakim Soria struggled through the seventh, however.

Washington scored a run off the first pitch of the game but did not score thereafter in a 3-1 loss at San Francisco.