Taillon shuts down Cards 4-0

Jameson Taillon gave the bullpen most of the night off and his teammates a reason to celebrate as he breezed through eight shutout innings of three-hit ball, posting a game score of 86. Miles Mikolas suffered his first loss after opening the season with six straight wins, despite only allowing two runs in six innings.

Taillon only allowed four base runners and carried a no-hitter into the fifth, the only one in which St. Louis put more than one on base. Marcell Ozuna started the frame with a sharp grounder to the right side that Adam Frazier was able to knock down. Dexter Fowler followed with a line single in front of right fielder Gregory Polanco, but Yairo Munoz was called out on strikes and Kolten Wong went down swinging before Francisco Pena grounded out softly to short to end the inning.

Ozuna beat out a soft grounder to third base in the seventh for the Cardinals only other hit of the game.

The Pirates jumped on the board in the top of the third when with one out Adam Frazier’s sharp grounder deflected off Mikolas’ foot and into left field for a double. Francisco Cervelli was then hit by a pitch and the bases became loaded when shortstop Munoz booted Starling Marte’s grounder. Josh Bell brought in Frazier with a sacrifice fly to left field, givign Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.

Again with one out in the fifth, Frazier hit a sharp grounder that eluded first baseman Jose Martinez and rolled around in the corner as Frazier sped to third with a triple. The next batter Cervelli replicated that feet as his deep drive to left found it’s way over Ozuna’s head for another triple and the second run of the game for the Pirates.

They tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth which mercifully removed a save situation from the game. Josh Bell walked with one out and Corey Dickerson rolled a ball into the left field corner. Bell streaked around the bases to score from first, knocking the ball out of the catcher’s swipe tag, as Dickerson took third on the throw. Colin Moran then drove a fly to right with Dickerson scoring easily after the catch.

With no save in sight, Edgar Santana took over ninth inning duties and allowed only a ground ball double to Martinez, although two deep drives were pulled in by the center fielder Marte.

In addition to Frazier, Dickerson also had a pair of hits and Gregory Polanco had a pair of balls struck at over 100 mph - the first a 384 foot fly out to the wall in left center at 101.3 and later a 390 foot double off the base of the wall in right center at 108.4.

The win out the Pirates’ record at 30-27, in fourth place, 5.5 games behind the Brewers and one game back of the Cardinals. The teams will play the third game of their series Saturday at 2:15 pm Eastern, with Chad Kuhl (4-3) facing Luke Weaver (3-5)