Nah, They Don't Need Pitching - Pirates Pounded 14-8

It was a 1-2-3 first with a couple of whiffs from Jordan Lyles. Adam Wainwright walked Fraze and Corey D to open the Bucco proceedings. Starling bounced one up the middle to send Adam home. An out later, Melky walked and Redbeard lofted a sac fly to make it 2-0. Goldy reached on a boot by K-Man to start the second, with much worse to come. Paul DeJong homered, barely clearing Dickerson's leap and landing in the second row, followed by back-to-back doubles and then a long fly (his first MLB bomb) by Andrew Knizner, the eight hitter who was batting .130. Lyles struck out Waino, then another walk and two-bagger plated a sixth run. A single actually helped matters as Dexter Fowler was thrown out at home by Melky. It was a short-lived victory; Goldy homered and in came Luis Escobar. He gave up consecutive doubles before the smoke cleared. With two away, Fraze hustled for an infield single-and-error, then Corey and Starling both doubled to make it 9-4. The Cards stranded two walks in the third; Eli was left aboard by the Bucs after a two-out two-bagger.

Corey was on four times tonight - photo Pittsburgh Pirates

No wiggle room for Escobar in the fourth; a single and second DeJong homer was followed by a walk and force, two stolen bases, another walk, short wild pitch, a Waino sac fly, single...it was then Michael Feliz time. He shut it down; at 13-4, might be a little late. The Bucs went down quietly. The game whizzed by scorelessly until the bottom of the seventh, when Melky singled home Starling and Corey, who had doubled and walked. The odds caught up to Joey O in his second inning of relief work as DeJong smacked his third homer in the eighth; still, two innings, one run on two hits and just 23 pitches, not bad. The Bucs put up a zippo and Jake took over for Osuna; raise your hand if you thought we'd see a Stallings-Diaz battery. He tossed a clean ninth (Clint may have found himself a couple of future openers). Corey and Starling banged back-to-back two-baggers and Redbeard singled home Marte with two outs before the curtain fell.

Well, so much for Jordan finding his groove. Hopefully Big Joe can toss six or seven solid innings tomorrow; the bullpen has eaten 15-1/3 IP in the last three games; thank goodness for Joey and Jake tonight, sparing the Big Three from burning an outing.

Notes:

• Starling had four hits; Corey had two knocks to go with two walks and Eli had a pair of raps. Marte had three RBI and two runs scored; Dickerson scored four times and chased home a run. Corey batting in the two-hole with Starling behind worked out pretty well tonight.
• The Cardinals tied a MLB record by recording eight extra-base hits in the second inning. They had 15 hits; six were doubles and five were homers.
• Joey O is the first Pirates position player to toss multiple innings since John Cangelosi in 1988, and this was the first time the Bucs have used two position players on the hill, at least dating back to 1908. (s/o to Joe Block)
• There were 18,675 in the house tonight.
• Keone Kela was reinstated from the suspended list and Clay Holmes was placed on the 10-day IL with right triceps inflammation.
• Well, here we go again...Jameson Taillon has been shut down after experiencing some pain during his throwing regimen. He'll see a doc again next week after it settles down. That pretty much ends the chances of a September return and again puts the possibility of surgery back into play. The Pirates need to determine his status; if he misses next season, that could very well impact the direction they take on the trade market.
• Gregory Polanco has been sat down for 7-10 more days, and is on an anti-inflammatory drugs treatment.