Pirates drop series opener to Cardinals 2-1

The Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off their season-ending home-and-home series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night, and despite a good start from pitcher Johan Oviedo, the Bucs couldn’t get anything going at the plate (big surpise) in a 2-1 defeat.

Oviedo went six innings, giving up two runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He gave up a solo shot to Albert Pujols in the fourth inning (and there’s no real shame in that despite the slugger’s age) and then an RBI single to Nolan Arenado the following inning for the only opposing runs of the day.

The Buccos actually got the scoring started in the top of the fourth on a Ji Hwan Bae bunt. Bae was 2-for-4 on the day as your only multi-hit Bucco, and the big guns of Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds were a combined 0-for-7 with six strikeouts. Reynolds fanned in the seventh with two runners on and again in the ninth with a runner on first to contribute to Pittsburgh’s 2-for-11 mark with runners in scoring position and 11 men left on base.

Not many highlights to give you from this one, but the Bucs are now 59-98 on the season with five games left, meaning another 100-loss season is very likely.

These two teams will be back at it tonight for the second game of six straight versus the Cards.