By MATT PIKE
The Pittsburgh Pirates held the St. Louis Cardinals to just one hit as Jared Jones spun seven dominant innings in a 2-0 win over St. Louis at PNC Park.
Jones retired the first 16 batters he faced before Nathan Church's bloop landed just beyond the outstretched glove of Pirates third baseman Jacob Gonzalez with one out in the sixth inning for the lone hit on the day by the Redbirds. Andre Pallante fell to 12-8 on the season taking the loss for St. Louis, nearly matching Jones in the game, but walking Oneil Cruz in the sixth with one out, allowing him to move to second on a fielder's choice, before scoring on an RBI single by Ryan O'Hearn.
Pallante threw six innings and gave up three hits and one run, walking two and striking out two in the loss. In 10 starts since the All Star Break, Pallante is just 2-2 despite pitching to a 3.00 ERA over that span. Pallante was relieved by Justin Bruihl in the seventh who surrendered the second run to the Pirates, though not to his own fault. Bruihl walked Spencer Horwitz, who scored in the inning on a wild pitch from Cade Winquest.
With five games remaining in the season the Cardinals, now 76-81 on the season, must win out to avoid a losing season with the loss. If St. Louis does not win out, the franchise will experience consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 1958 and 1959, the second-longest stretch between consecutive losing years in the history of major North American professional sports.
St. Louis will look to get back in the win column as the series continues tomorrow. Matthew Liberatore (5-14, 5.36 ERA, 148Ks) is set to start for the Cardinals against Lake Bachar (1-4, 3.56 ERA, 87Ks) for the Pirates. First pitch is at 5:40pm, coverage begins at 5:30pm on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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