Pirates fall to Cardinals 8-7 in extra innings for 100th loss of season

Oct 5, 2022 - 10:43 AM

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The Pittsburgh Pirates held out on their 100th loss till the last moment, but they fell 8-7 to the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night in their next-to-last game of the season.

Juan Yepez singled home Ben DeLuzio for St. Louis in the top of the 10th, and Pittsburgh had a chance to get it back in the bottom of the inning, but Kevin Newman was thrown out at home after a wonky play where an Oneil Cruz infield grounder bounced off first baseman Alec Burleson and second baseman Brendan Donovan before Donovan then made the throw to the plate to get Newman trying to score from second.

Pittsburgh then had another chance when Cruz subsequently stole second and then advanced to third on a throwing error by Cards catcher Andrew Knizer, but Bryan Reynolds grounded out to end the threat and hand the Bucs loss 100.

Before that, there was plenty of excitement as well, with 26 total hits between the two teams, including 15 from Pittsburgh. There were stretches this season where the Bucs needed three or four games to knock out 15, so this was quite impressive from the Pittsburgh bats even if it didn’t result in a win.

There were nine total runs scored in the third inning, six by the Bucs, and then Cardinals snagged four more in the seventh. Pittsburgh also scored a run in the opening frame.

There were errors, wild pitches, stolen bases, challenges, this game had pretty much everything except for a home run. In today’s game, it’s certainly out of the ordinary to have all of those hits but not a single dinger.

Regardless, there were many multi-hit Buccos, including Cruz, who went 3-for-6, Reynolds was 2-for-4, Rodolfo Castro was 2-for-5, Jack Suwinski was 2-for-4, Ke’Bryan Hayes was 2-for-4, and Ji Hwan Bae was 2-for-5. Bae and Cruz also both had throwing errors in that big seventh inning for St. Louis.

On the mound, JT Brubaker got the start, but he went just two and two-thirds innings, giving up three runs on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Chase De Jong ended up with the loss to fall to 6-3 on the season.

The Bucs will finish up the 2022 MLB season today when they take on the Cards one last time.