Pirates beat Cardinals again 5-4

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Wil Crowe finally got his first win of the season, Ke’Bryan Hayes had two hits for the third straight game, and the Bucs’ bullpen continues to perform at a high level as Pittsburgh downed the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 for their second straight win over the Red Birds and their fifth win in the last seven games.

Hayes went 2-for-4 with a walk and and an RBI to raise his average to .295, meaning all three of Pittsburgh’s top three hitters (Hayes, Adam Frazier, Bryan Reynolds) are all pushing or above the .300 mark. Hayes now has a 29-game on-base streak stretching into last season, which is the longest by a Bucco since Jason Bay had 29 in 2005. Hopefully, he can break that on Saturday.

As for Crowe, he wasn’t amazing, but he was good enough to get his first win of the season, going five innings pitched and giving up four runs on eight hits, two walks, two strikeouts, and two homeruns given up.

But it was the Pittsburgh bullpen that was once again stellar, finishing out the last four innings with a combo of Clay Holmes, Chasen Shreve, Kyle Crick, and Rich Rodriguez. They gave up just a single hit between them and struck out three total. Rodriguez pitched pitched a perfect ninth with two of those strikeouts for his 10th save on the season.

The Pirates also got a multi-hit night from Kevin Newman, who went 2-for-3, while they also got two RBIs apiece from Phillip Evans, who scored Hayes and Reynolds on a liner to right in the third, and Jacob Stallings, who scored Frazier on a ground out in the third and Hayes on a single in the fifth.

The Pirates move to 28-46 on the season, a full 14 games back in their division, but I’ve said it a few times this week already: they really are playing some good ball right now. They beat the Cleveland Indians in a series, split with the Chicago White Sox, and have now, at the very least, earned a split with the Cardinals, who are a division rival. I know the Bucs aren’t technically “good”, but they’ve been a lot of fun of late.

They’ll be back on the field for a 2:15 start on Saturday afternoon looking for their third win in a row. You’ll have Patricia on the game coverage, and she’ll be live tweeting the game as well, so if you’re on the bird app, make sure you follow along!