The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 in 10 innings last night. Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt hit a grand slam home run off Pirates reliever Clay Holmes in the top of the 10th, and a Pirates three-run comeback fell short in the bottom of the inning. Starling Marte and Josh Bell had back-to-back doubles to begin the inning. Jung Ho Kang hit a two-run home run after that.
Pirates starting pitcher Trevor Williams allowed one earned run over five innings, striking out seven. Four Pirates relievers held the Cardinals off the board until the Goldschmidt game-winning shot.
The Bucs are now 2-8 after the All-Star break, and have fallen seven games under .500. They did not lose any ground to the Chicago Cubs, who lost to San Francisco last night. The Pirates remain 7-1/2 back in the NL Central. They host the Cardinals again tonight at 7:05pm. Pre-game on WISR 680am is 6:40pm. Chris Archer will start for the Pirates. The Cardinals have moved to within 1-1/2 games of the Cubs.
The Pirates recalled reliever Keone Kela from his rehab assignment and reinstated him from the 60-day Injured list, but then suspended him for two games for violation of his Uniform Player’s Contract. The Pirates have not explained why the suspension occurred.