Pittsburgh 9, St. Louis 2
When: 7:05 PM ET, Monday, July 29, 2013
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Temperature:
74°
Umpires:
Home -
Jeff Kellogg, 1B -
Eric Cooper, 2B -
Paul Schrieber, 3B -
Chad Fairchild
Attendance:
32084
By SportsDirect Inc.
Pirates 9, Cardinals 2: Pedro Alvarez hit a three-run homer and Francisco Liriano pitched seven strong innings as host Pittsburgh beat St. Louis in the opener of a five-game series.
Andrew McCutchen had a run-scoring single prior to Alvarez’s first-inning blast as the Pirates moved within a half-game of first-place St. Louis in the National League Central.
Liriano (11-4) struck out eight and allowed one run and four hits while winning for the sixth time in seven starts. The left-hander has given up two or fewer runs in seven of his last eight outings.
Pittsburgh had a 4-0 lead before St. Louis starter Jake Westbrook (7-5) retired his first batter. McCutchen drove in the first run with a sharp single to center before Alvarez slammed his NL-leading 27th homer over the right-field fence.
The Cardinals got on the board in the sixth when pinch hitter Tony Cruz tripled and scored on Matt Carpenter’s single to center. Pittsburgh responded with five seventh-inning runs on Gaby Sanchez’s sacrifice fly, Alex Presley’s single, Clint Barnes’ two-run double and a pinch-hit single by Starling Marte.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Alvarez is 13-for-23 with three homers and 11 RBIs against Westbrook. … Westbrook allowed four runs and four hits in five innings to drop his career mark against the Pirates to 1-8. … Pittsburgh placed C Michael McKenry (knee) on the disabled list and recalled Presley from Triple-A Indianapolis.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
| St. Louis |
|
Pittsburgh |
|
Jake Westbrook |
Player |
Francisco Liriano
|
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
|
5.0 |
IP |
7.0 |
|
2 |
Strikeouts |
8 |
|
4 |
Hits |
4 |
|
7.20 |
ERA |
1.29 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| St. Louis
|
7 |
0 |
9 |
.212 |
15 |
10 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Pittsburgh
|
9 |
1 |
15 |
.290 |
15 |
4 |
9 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
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