Williams delivers again as Bucs win 2-0

Trevor Williams delivered his eighth consecutive quality start during Wednesday night’s contest against St. Louis while the offense backed him just enough to ensure that effort turned into a win.

Williams escaped a big jam in the bottom of the 1^st inning that seemed to set the tone for him on the mound. After walking Carpenter to lead off the inning, Molina doubled to center, leaving runners at second and third. Williams was able to strike out Jose Martinez for the first out of the inning. Then he was helped out with some slick defense by Adam Frazier on an over the shoulder catch in center field before finally striking out DeJong to end the threat.

It was smooth sailing from there as Williams would go on to strike out eight Cardinals hitters while only allowing three hits over six shutout innings.

On the other side of the baseball, Pittsburgh’s offense was finally kick started in the 5^th inning, courtesy of an unlikely source: small ball.

Jordy Mercer led off the 5^th inning with a double to left center field and advanced to third base on a successful sacrifice bunt attempt by Trevor Williams. With the infield playing in, Marte blooped a base hit just beyond the normal short stop position, bringing Mercer in to score the game’s first run. To keep things rolling, Marte and Frazier linked up for a textbook hit and run that would place runners at the corners. Polanco then singled in Marte for the game’s second and final run before Cervelli and Dickerson lined out softly up the middle to end the threat.

Santana, Kela, and Vazquez would team up to throw a scoreless 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th while securing a Pittsburgh win in game two of the series.

Final score: Pirates 2, Cardinals 0

W: Williams (11-9) L: Mikolas (13-4) SV: Vazquez (28)

The Pirates and Cardinals will face off tomorrow night in the rubber game as Musgrove and Gant battle it out. Game time is 7:15pm EDT.