The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1 last night at PNC Park, snapping a five-game winning streak for the Bucs. The Cardinals put up all five of their runs in the third and fourth innings of the game. Reliever Brandon Eisert took the loss, allowing three earned runs in just 2/3rds of an inning.
The lone Pirates run came on Brandon Lowe’s 34th home run of the season. He has now driven in 94 runs for the Bucs. Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn had four of the Pirates six hits in the game.
The Cardinals had 10 hits off Pirates pitching, led by first baseman Alec Burleson, who drove in his National League-leading 112th run of the season.
During last night’s game, the Pirates broke the franchise record for most strikeouts by pitchers in a season. Lake Bachar struck out Burleson in the first inning, which was the team’s 1,444th strikeout of the year by Pirates pitchers. Lowe’s home run was the team’s 99th of the season at PNC Park.
The two teams complete their series, and the Pirates home schedule this afternoon at 12:35pm. WISR pre-game begins at 12:10pm. Paul Skenes will make his final start of the year. He is 10-11 with a 3.91 ERA.
The five-game winning streak that just ended, was tied for the Pirates longest of the season.