Willy Returns to Earth; Pen Falters Late as Bucs Drop 8-7 Opener to Redbirds

Adam Wainwright had a good start, giving up just a two-out J-Bell rap in the first. Willy tossed a clean frame with two whiffs. Waino fanned the first pair in the second, then Colin Moran caught a knee-high cutter and drilled it 405' over the CF fence to get the Bucs on the board. There were no chirps from the Birds in their half. Trevor started the third with a knock and an out later, Starling sent a fastball 418' into the night for a 3-0 lead. J-Bell, Cervy and Corey D followed with singles for another run before the music stopped. The Cards went down on nine pitches. Wainwright answered with a nine-toss fourth of his own. Matt Carpenter opened by banging a fat heater to right for an opening two-bagger and a following single put Redbirds on the corners. An out later, a single/double combo made it 4-3, then an infield single and sac fly knotted the score. Three up, three ground outs for Pittsburgh in the fifth. The Cards led off with a rap up the middle, causing no ado. Lefty Chasen Shreve took over in the sixth. After Corey D just missed, flying out deep to the oppo field, J-Hay crushed a high splitter 420' into straight center the regain the lead. An out later, righty Dominic Leone came out to face Jordy, who singled before K-Man walked. Fraze knocked home Mercer with an insurance marker.

Good to see Josh banging the horsehide (photo Pgh Pirates)

Kyle Crick put the Redbirds away 1-2-3. Tyler Webb got the seventh inning call and got three routine outs. Ric Rod claimed the hill and fanned a pair in a calm frame. John Brebbia answered the eighth inning bell and got a whiff, single, 6-4-3 DP for an easy appearance. Edgar Santana got into immediate hot water with a walk and knock. A short wild pitch put Birds on second and third, and a Matt Adams homer made it all moot. Dovy Neverauskas toed the slab and a single, grounder, passed ball and a walk put Cards at first and third. A foul-territory sac fly to right put the Bucs in an 8-6 hole. Carlos Martinez let Fraze reach second on a deflected ball that was then tossed away between a pair of full-count, foul tip whiffs. J-Bell kept the pulse beating with a double that scored Fraze, and he didn't miss tying it by much, sending it halfway up the wall. Pablo Reyes came in to run, but Cervy made all the action theoretic when he bounced out in the hole on the next pitch. The out call was bang-bang but withstood a game-ending challenge.

Well, Willy is human, after all. We do wonder why Keone Kela didn't get the eighth. He hasn't seen action for awhile (September 3rd); maybe he's quietly banged up, or maybe Clint is using the final three weeks to see if his younger bullpen guys can handle the pressure of high leverage situations (although we have no idea why they keep trotting Dovy out, especially in crunch time. The run he gave up was the eventual game winner). Kinda odd that the ol' skipper starts the A-Team in the field and then uses a veg-o-matic approach for the pen. Guess it's gonna be a strange brew we see in the final stretch of games.

Colin has been feelin' it lately, too (photo Pgh. Pirates)

Notes:

• J-Bell keeps raking; he had three hits. Fraze and Red Beard each had a pair of knocks.
• Trevor William's scoreless run ended at 20-2/3 innings; he earlier had a 21-inning zippo string.
• Colin Moran's homer was his first since July 1st and ninth of the year.
• Adam Wainwright got his 1,600th big league K against J-Hay in the second inning.
• Gerrit Cole & Justin Verlander are the first pair of teammates with 250 K in a season since 2002 when Randy Johnson & Curt Schilling did the trick for Arizona (they both had 300+).