Bucs Go 14 Innings Today; Lose Again 3-2

If waterboarding was the best Dick Cheney could come up with, it's pretty obvious he never watched the Pirates play at St. Louis. The Buc starting pitching remained rock solid this afternoon. Vance Worley gave up just one run and four hits with five whiffs, lasting six frames. The bullpen put up zips until Jung-Ho Kang picked a good spot for his first MLB homer, leading off the ninth by launching a curve to tie the game.

Both sides made runs at scoring in extra frames, but it was the Bucs who broke through on Pedro's 12th inning, two-out blast to go ahead 2-1. Tony Watson and Jared Hughes were both available, although they had worked the two days prior (Tony tossed 29 pitches and Jared 23 in those two outings), along with Radhames Liz. With an off day tomorrow, you bring in one of the back enders, right?

Wrong. Clint waved in Liz, who gave up the tying run but did work out of a one-out, bases loaded jam with the game on the line. The 13th went quietly, then in the bottom of the 14th, Kolten Wong yanked a changeup low and away into the second tier of seats in right, and the Bucs dropped their third straight extra inning match to the Redbirds 3-2.

Radhames Liz wasn't up to the task today (photo: Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

It was a game for the taking for both sides; the Bucs stranded 13 more runners and went 0-for-7 with RISP; the Cards left 11 on base and were 1-for-7 with RISP. But the series came down to this - the Pirate pitchers yielded just one run after nine innings in all three games; but the Pirate hitters scored just three runs during that same span. In 35 innings, they scored four runs, stranding 37 and going 2-for-25 with RISP. One of those RISP hits was by AJ Burnett.

The Bucs are off tomorrow and start a six game stretch at PNC, starting with the Reds and then the Cards during the weekend. Last year the Pirates won all three series against the Cardinals at home, so hopefully it's payback time.

• Jung Ho Kang is first Pirate to hit a game-tying homer on the road in the ninth inning of a 1-0 game since Brian Harper in 1982.
• Pedro drew four walks today and three yesterday; he had four free passes coming into the series.
• Matt Carpenter's fourth inning homer off Vance Worley was the first home run allowed by the Pirates pitching staff in 94-1/3 innings, the longest such streak since 1976 (97 innings). 
• Pirates starters have been charged with two earned runs in the last four games, covering 26 IP (0.77 ERA).
• The Cards hit into three DPs today; all three were started by Josh.