Birds Broom Bucs 6-3

Joe Musgrove had a rough start - double, lineout, back-to-back singles and a sac fly made it 2-0 in a flash. The Bucs went quietly in their half against Miles Mikolas. Joe mastered the Cards in the second, and J-Bell drew a walk for all the Pirates action. There were no Redbird chirps in the third. Jake opened with a rap and Fraze's one-out knock put Bucs on the corners. Bryan Reynold's sac fly brought in Pittsburgh's first tally. St. Louis got that back three pitches later when Goldy homered to start the fourth. An out later, Kolten Wong went long, and a two-bagger was added in with two away. Redbeard took one for the team as the Bucco response. A J-Bell boot and Dexter Fowler homer kept piling up the chips for the Cards in the fifth. Mikolas held the Bucs at Bay. Alex McRae worked a clean sixth (Joe was at 89 not particularly well-tossed pitches). Reynolds singled and scored on Starling's double; Marte was pushed home on a pair of right-side bouncers to make the score 6-3.

Starling looking for some help - image MLB Network

Ric Rod gave up just a walk in the seventh. John Gant took over for St. Louis and fanned a pair in a bloodless frame. Frankie was called out for the eighth, and gave up a two-out double that caused no problems. Andrew Miller was beckoned, and with two away, J-Bell singled off a glove, leading to nothing. Clint brought in Felipe, who was making his first appearance of the series, for the ninth. He whiffed a pair. Miller faced another batter, got his out, and Carlos Martinez entered, giving up an infield knock to K-Man and plunking Jake. No prob; Joey O bit on a down-and-away slider (the third in a row that he saw) and rolled it to second to end the game with a 4-6-3 DP.

When you're hot, you're hot...and when you're not, you're not. The Bucs are not (2-11 since the ASG) and may need an exorcist more than a deadline deal.

Notes:

• The Bucs had seven hits; the only batter to reach twice was J-Bell with a knock and a walk.
• Starling had nine hits in the four-game set against St. Louis, with five doubles, a homer, six runs scored and seven RBI.
• Goldy has homered in every game of this series and in his last five games against Pittsburgh. The Redbirds clocked 12 homers during the series.
• There were 24,534 tickets sold for today's game.
• Richard Justice of MLB.com has ID'ed six darkhorse trade picks with The Nightmare among them. He writes "GM Neal Huntington says he isn't trading Vazquez, but everyone has a price, right? Logical landing spots: Astros, Dodgers or Nationals." We've also heard Atlanta was at least sniffing around.
• Per Jon Heyman of MLB Network: "Jameson Taillon is thought to need surgery. The hope is it’s only flexor repair (as opposed to elbow), which would mean he’d be ready for next year." 
• K-Man booted a ball yesterday, and stop the press - that broke his streak of 54 consecutive errorless games at shortstop, a Pirates modern record (since 1900), per Joe Block. He hadn't made an error since early April prior to last night. Newman's not terribly rangy with a DRS of +1, but that beats Jordy's -9 from last year. His fielding has been as pleasant surprise as his hitting (111 wRC+) so far this campaign.