Felipe & Feliz Flounder in Brutal 6-4 Loss To Cards

Matt Carpenter doubled to start the game and moved to third with two outs. He scored on Marcell Ozuna's left side bleeder that the speedster barely beat out, and it was 1-0. Austin Meadows legged out an infield knock with an out against Miles Mikolas. The Bucs remain frustrating; Starling got a pair of hung changeups but fouled them both before flying out and J-Bell saw one toss over the plate in seven pitches and still fanned. St. Louis went down 1-2-3 in the second, same for the Bucs. Carpenter banged another two-bagger in the third but was left aboard while the Pirates again went quietly. Jamo spun a clean fourth. Austin opened with a soft opp field single and stole second. After two quick outs (AM tagged to third on J-Bell's fly), Red Beard tied the game with a knock before Gregory K'ed for the second time. Jamo tucked the bottom of order away efficiently in the fifth with two K and eight pitches.

A good outing wasted (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

Eli walked and Jordy followed with a single. With the Cards charging hard on the wheel play, Jamo took a cut, but flew out to right. Fraze had a great at bat, battling through 11 pitches before he found a slider he liked, and he banged it for a two-run three-bagger the opp way into The Notch. AM followed with a sac fly to put the Pittsburgh nine up 4-1. Carpenter walked to start the sixth; can't keep him off the sacks this series. A grounder moved him up, and another roller clanged off Red Beard's mitt; the boot put Redbirds on the corners. No sweat as Jamo picked him up by feeding Ozuna a 6-4-3 DP ball. The Pirates went quietly. Kolten Wong dribbled an infield knock with an out and Yairo Munoz followed with another rap in the seventh, and that brought Edgar Santana to the hill. JT gave up five hits, a walk and whiffed six after 85 tosses; he used his slider early and often today and it was effective. Santana uncorked a wild pitch and gave up a two-out a flare to Jedd Gyorko, and suddenly it's 4-3. Sam Tuivailala denied a Buc response and Michael Feliz was the eighth inning moundsman.

He surrendered a dying quail single and back-to-back walks. Feliz pumped out a K and Felipe Vazquez was called in and yep, another bloop single the opp way tied it. The Birds took the lead on a four-pitch walk, none of the tosses remotely close to the zone. A weak grounder chased home an insurance point and brought in Steven Brault (Vazquez went to the dugout cradling his elbow, so we'll see whassup with that) to get the third out, a whiff of Carpenter.  Jordan Hicks came on to twirl a clean inning. Brault put up a zero in the ninth despite bopping a batter and Bud Norris took the ball for the Cards. Three batters later, the brutal loss was in the books.

Felipe has hit on hard times (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

The Bucs used to be among the best in closing games, but lately... In his last three outings, Felipe Vazquez has blown three saves, giving up four runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks in 1-2/3 IP while Michael Feliz had given up seven runs on four hits and three walks and lasted two IP in his last three visits to the mound. Not only are the come-from-ahead losses brutal, but eventually they'll wear on the team ethos if they have no confidence in the back end holding onto leads.

Still, it's not as if the Cardinal voodoo wasn't in play - they stirred a mix of soft hits and walks into six runs; twice Pirate pitchers got a grounder with a runner on first that could have ended the inning if turned into a twin killing, but neither ball had enough pace and ended up scoring two runs, the margin of defeat. And the Bucco batters chased Mikolas, only to go nine up, nine down against three relievers; five hits isn't going to win a lot of games.

Notes:

• Austin Meadows has six multi-hit games in the nine he's played; today was his fourth straight.
• The Pirates became the second team to hang a four-spot on Mikolas; the Brewers did it twice.
• There was a late lineup change - Cervy has the flu, so Eli is catching and batting seventh; Austin Meadows was bumped up to second and Gregory to sixth in the order.
• Neal Huntington said on his Sunday radio show that the odds are in favor of Ivan Nova going on the DL, but they haven't decided who to use if he does among Nick Kingham, Steven Brault and Tyler Glasnow.

Looks like Nick is on for Tuesday (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

• He didn't commit to a time frame for how long Austin Meadows remains on the MLB roster, other than it will be for as long as they can get him regular playing time ("He needs to play.") The GM did say that AM isn't here as a fourth outfielder but as part of a four man outfield, so that bit of nuance bodes well for Meadows for the time being.
• Another slow day at the gate with 19,608 in the house.
• Cardinals bench coach Mike Schildt was smacked in the noggin by a smoked Starling foul and was taken, under his own power but dazed, to the clubhouse for evaluation. He suffered a contusion and was back on the bench two innings later, we're glad to report.
• Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register takes a look at Iowa-bred prospect Mitch Keller.