By MATT PIKE
The Pittsburgh Pirates evened up their series with the St. Louis Cardinals as Rafael Flores Jr. hit a three-run home run and Brandon Lowe added a solo shot to lift the Pirates to a 6-2 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Six Pittsburgh pitchers held the Cardinals to just three hits. Cardinals Rookie Brycen Mautz took the loss in his MLB debut for St. Louis giving up four runs on five hits and a walk in three innings of relief for starting pitcher Kyle Leahy, striking out eight. Leahy threw three innings as well, giving up one run on four hits while striking out three and walking one batter.
The Pirates took the lead in the first inning off Leahy when Lowe hit his solo home run. In the bottom of the third inning, the Cardinals evened up the score with a solo home run of their own, Joshua Baez hitting his first home run at Busch Stadium, sending an 0-1 slider from reliever Evan Sisk into the left-field seats. Baez made history earlier this season in his major league debut when homered in each of his first three major league at-bats on August 15th in Chicago. Following that three home run performance he did not hit another until August 21st in Philadelphia before his fifth on Saturday.
Pittsburgh took the lead back in the fourth inning. Jake Mangum singled to left and Baez misplayed it and then didn’t hustle after it, causing Mangum to race to third where he was ruled out before the call was challenged and overturned. Mautz then gave up a run-scoring single to Jacob Gonzalez. In the fifth, Flores drove a 3-2 slider into the left-field bleachers for a three-run home run, scoring Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz, extending the Pirates advantage to 5-1.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, three consecutive errors led to a run for St. Louis. With one out, Gonzalez booted two grounders, on hits by Jordan Walker and Nathan Church, followed by center fielder Oneil Cruz misplaying a routine fly that allowed José Fermín to reach base. The error on the fly ball from Fermín allowed Walker to come in to score, putting the Cardinals down 5-2. In the ninth inning, Nick Gonzales doubled to bring home Lowe capping the scoring.
For the three Cardinals hits at the plate, Church was 1-for-4, Jimmy Crooks was 1-for-2 with a double, and Baez was 1-for-4 with a home run and an RBI.
St. Louis and Pittsburgh wrap up their series on Sunday. Matthew Liberatore (5-12, 5.44 ERA, 132Ks) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Braxton Ashcraft (13-5, 3.59 ERA, 161Ks) for the Pirates. First pitch is at 1:15pm.