By MATT PIKE
Spencer Horwitz hit a home run Konnor Griffin had four hits, and the Pittsburgh Pirates shut out the St. Louis Cardinals 7-0 at Busch Stadium to snap their four-game losing streak.
Carmen Mlodzinski allowed four hits and a walk in five innings to the Cardinals lineup to improve to 3-0 with a 1.75 ERA in 11 career appearances against the Redbirds. Yohan Ramírez, Evan Sisk, Justin Lawrence and Dennis Santana each pitched a scoreless inning of relief for Pittsburgh, which gave up five hits overall.
The Pirates led 3-0 when they scored four runs in the eighth inning off Cardinals reliever Matt Svanson. Horwitz hit his solo home run in the second inning, Griffin scoring a run in the fourth inning after one of his four hits on an RBI single by Jhostynxon Garcia, and Griffin scoring again in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly from Nick Gonzales for that three run lead.
In the eighth inning, Jake Magnum opened the scoring with an RBI single driving in Griffin before Endy Rodríguez came home on another RBI single from Gonzales. Bryan Reynolds capped the scoring in the inning with a two-run double driving in both Magnum and Gonzales for the 7-0 lead.
Michael McGreevy stumbled for the first time in May, taking a loss and falling to 3-3 on the season, allowing three runs on 10 hits in five innings to snap a streak of four consecutive starts where he allowed two runs in 24 innings. He also struck out one and walked one in the start. At the plate, of the five hits, JJ Wetherholt led the way going 2-for-4. Alec Burleson was 1-for-2 on the night with a walk.
St. Louis was shutout for the second time this season after being blanked by Kansas City on Sunday.
Next, St. Louis and Pittsburgh close up their series. Dustin May (3-4, 4.81, 35 K's) will start the finale for the Cardinals against Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 3.09 ERA, 56 K's) for the Pirates. First pitch will be at 12:15pm, pregame will begin around 12:05 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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