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Cardinals end disappointing season with a win

Sep 30, 2007 - 9:44 PM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The defending World Series champion St.Louis Cardinals had a season to forget. But at least they will have fond memories of their last five games.

Skip Schumaker had a career-high four hits and had two RBI while Scott Spiezio hit his fourth home run as the Cardinals completed the season on a five-game winning streak after finishing a sweep of the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates with a 6-5 win Sunday afternoon.

The contest was a bizarre one in which at least two obscure major league records were were set, as the two teams combined to use 18 pitchers in a nine-inning contest. The Houston Astros and San Francisco Giants previously held the record of 16 pitchers on September 28, 2002.

"We emptied our bench, used our bullpen, and they did too," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "You're supposed to play this game to win.

"You're not supposed to mail it in, hurry up and catch a plane. We were looking for something at the end to verify how we've been playing, and we ended up winning games. It's a good message to send to our fans."

The Cardinals, who finish the season 78-84, scored the game's first run in the second when pinch-hitter Jim Edmonds singled to score Spiezio. Edmonds was batting for starter Troy Percival.

La Russa had been coy all week about who would start Sunday's game, and he elected to go with the 38-year-old former closer.

It was the 639th appearance of Percival's career, but the 12-year veteran of 324 saves had never started a contest. In doing so, he broke a major-league record held by Chuck McElroy, who pitched in 632 games before making a start in 2000.

The Cardinals used 10 pitchers, with only eventual winner Kip Wells (7-17) going more than the 1 1/3 innings Jason Isringhausen did in earning his 32nd save.

"It was a bullpen game," La Russa said. "They used four pitchers in an inning, we used three. We're both trying to win a game."

Wells allowed only two hits in three shutout innings, striking out four with no walks.

"It is what it is; I won, we won," Wells said. "Sure I wanted to stay in there but it's not my call. I know I have good enough stuff to get people out, so we'll try to build on this."

The 10 pitchers used by St. Louis tied a major-league record for a nine-inning game set by the Baltimore Orioles September 12, 2004 and matched September 7 of this season by the Colorado Rockies.

Spiezio's shot to right came with nobody on and one out in the fourth to make it 2-0.

Pittsburgh cut that lead in half in the fifth on Nyjer Morgan's RBI single that scored Jose Castillo.

But the Cardinals broke the game open with a four-run sixth that included an RBI single by Brendan Ryan, a bases-loaded walk to Russell Branyan and a two-run single by Schumaker.

"It was nice to get a win, obviously, and I'm glad it ended well," Schumaker said. "And you're always playing for next year, too, so it was good to go out on a good note and play well."

Bryan Bullington, a former No. 1 overall draft pick, got the start for the Pirates on his 27th birthday.

It was the best start of Bullington's brief career. He allowed two runs and five hits in five innings, walking one and striking out three. Bullington did not pitch the entire 2006 season after undergoing right shoulder surgery in late 2005.

"Overall, I threw strikes and was down in the zone and missed the barrel for the most part," Bullington said. "Just getting a chance to get up here and get some innings and get some experience under my belt and have some success here at the end is good."

The Pirates scored three in the seventh to make a game of it at 6-4, with Castillo, Nate McLouth and Cesar Izturis driving runs in.

Pittsburgh pulled within a run in the ninth on a two-out RBI single by Xavier Nady, but Isringhausen got Jose Bautista to fly out to center field to end the game and season for both teams.

"The season didn't turn out in the manner in which we liked to see it, Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "But I give an awful lot of credit to that group of guys out there. They put it all on the line."