Carpenter's Homer, Bucco Bumbles Hand Redbirds 7-3 Win In Opener

Today’s Game: JT Brubaker was touched for a wind-carried double and a two-out blooper that Ka’ai Tom couldn’t quite corral to allow the Cards to draw first blood. John Gant was on, getting three straight grounders, his bread-and-butter. St. Louis added another single in the second, but Bru ran his K count to four to make for a quiet frame. A walk to Jake Stallings was followed by a force-out by Gregory Polanco. He stole second and went to third on a bad toss with two down before another grounder turned the page. A leadoff knock paid off for the Cardinals when another two-out bloop fell between Ka’ai Tom and Kevin Newman (Ka’ai’s ball, but Newman was there with hands waving, so it was likely bad communication between the pair) to make it 2-0 in the third. Tom opened with a walk; Bru bunted into a DP when Ka’ai overran second and was picked off by the first baseman after the play on JT. It may have cost a run when Adam Frazier singled. Tom is not having a dazzling debut so far.

Tyler O’Neill went deep to begin the fourth. The Bucs worked a pair of walks to open and Jake Stallings was up 3-0 before ump James Hoye widened the corners enough to ring him up. Gregory Polanco smoked an at ‘em ball out to left before K-Man came through with a run-scoring rap to make the count 3-1. Brubaker tossed his first clean frame in the fifth. A knock and a walk got it started for Pittsburgh for a heartbeat before Erik Gonzalez dribbled into a 2-5 DP (two tags) followed by a short fly to center. Duane Underwood worked the sixth and gave up a three-run dinger to Matt Carpenter on an 0-2 center-cut fastball to put the Pirates in the rear view mirror at 6-1. Tyler Webb, who the Pirates took as a Rule 5 guy from the Yankees and returned, took the ball. He left the bases loaded with two outs for Kodi Whitley, who wild-pitched one run in and balked another home to make the tally 6-3.

David Bednar was waved on in the seventh and tossed a 1-2-3 frame. Genesis Cabrera did the same for St. Louis. Bednar put up a second zero on a hit in the eighth and Cabrera tossed another three-up, three-down inning. Clay Holmes was beckoned for the ninth and bopped the first two batters. Fraze started a nice DP to ease the pressure, then booted the next ball to allow a two-out run to scoot home. Ryan Helsey toed the slab and walked Tom. Phil Evans; he was rung up and ejected beefing over Hoye’s called third strike. Two bouncers shut the door.

The patient, get ‘em on approach didn’t work so well tonight – the Bucs drew nine walks, but just four singles and a couple of timely DP’s made it a chore to move them along. The solid fielding was AWOL tonight, too, even with a couple of nifty plays by Reynolds and Fraze. Not sure why, but it seems to work out that way when the Pirates play the Cards…

Notes:

• Kevin Newman had two hits while Fraze posted a knock and a walk. In four plate appearances, Ka’ai Tom never put a ball in play, drawing three free passes and fanning once.
• Wilmer Difo’s fifth-inning single made him 5-for-13 (.385) as a pinch-hitter this year. The Pirates lead MLB with 12 pinch-hits this season.
• 5,953 fans made it to tonight’s contest.

Tomorrow’s Game: The game is at 6:35 and will be carried in AT&T SportsNet PITT2 and 93.7 The Fan. Trevor Cahill is slated to take on Jack Flaherty.