Bucs busted by Cardinals 8-5

Well, the final score between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals ended up a somewhat respectable 8-5 defeat for our hometown Buccos, but the game was mostly over well before that.

The Cardinals chased starter Trevor Cahill with a run in the first and five more in the second. Cahill lasted just an inning, taking credit for four of those runs on two hits and two walks, while the Pittsburgh bullpen was equally ineffective, as Duane Underwood gave up two more runs in his three innings and Luis Oviedo gave up two more.

The Cardinals played a throwback game, mostly utilizing old-fashioned small ball to get it done versus the Buccos. With the exception of their opening run in the first off of Cahill, which came from a Paul Goldschmidt double that scored Tommy Edman, all seven of the Cardinals other runs were manufactured from singles or a sacrifice fly.

The only long ball of the night came from Pittsburgh’s Gregory Polanco, who absolutely crushed a four-seamer from Jack Flaherty in the top of the fifth.

The Buccos, who were down 8-2 after the fifth inning, staged a mini-rally in the top the seventh, when a Bryan Reynolds ground out scored Erik Gonzalez, a Polanco single scored Adam Frazier for El Coffey’s third RBI of the night, and Reynolds scored off a single from Ildemaro Vargas to reach the final tally of 8-5.

Alex Reyes pitched the last inning for St. Louis to snag his 13th save of the season, and the Cards snatched a two-game sweep from the Buccos.

Polanco was the man at the plate, going 2-for-4 with those three RBIs, while Adam Frazier also went 2-for-4 and Kevin Newman finished 2-for-5.

Cahill took the loss at the mound to fall to 1-5 on the season, while Sam Howard struck out the side in his only inning pitched and Kyle Keller had a shutout eighth inning at the mound as well.

The loss sends Pittsburgh to 17-25 on the year, and with no rest for the wicked, they’ll be back in action tonight, as they head to Atlanta for a four-game series with the Braves. They sit at 20-23 on the season, so maybe the Bucs can walk out of Georgia with a couple Ws under their belt. See you tonight at 7:20pm.