Pirates' bats 'weather the storm' to provide late run production

ST. LOUIS -- After being held hitless through six innings by Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, the Pirates desperately needed something to invigorate their silenced bats.

Bryan Reynolds finally delivered with a triple off the outfield wall to lead off the seventh inning and Nick Gonzales later added a double to begin the eighth. In both instances, it seemed as if those extra-base hits might spark some type of run production. 

Instead, both opportunities were squandered in disheartening fashion. In the seventh, it was an unassisted double play turned by Nolan Arenado, who caught a liner off the bat of Ke'Bryan Hayes and easily tagged third base to get Reynolds who had no shot of getting back in time. One inning later, a failed sacrifice bunt by Michael A. Taylor turned into Gonzales being thrown out at third and a 4-3 double play off the bat of Yasmani Grandal ended another promising opportunity to get on the board. 

Despite finishing with three hits and falling short in their attempt to deliver in back-to-back run-scoring situations, the Pirates finally broke through with just one hit in the ninth. A pair of walks and a single by Andrew McCutchen loaded the bases and two runs came in to score on a fielder's choice and a sacrifice fly by Oneil Cruz, lifting the Pirates to a 2-1 victory over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium Tuesday night. 

"I’m proud of our group, coming off the off day, to be that resilient," Derek Shelton said. 

Connor Joe drove in the go-ahead run by hitting a dart that was picked by the shortstop Masyn Winn. He stood up and delivered a low throw home that couldn't be handled by Pedro Pages, allowing Jack Suwinski to slide in safely for a 1-0 lead: 

"He made a good play and luckily, Jack was able to score, had a really good read because it's tough," Joe said. "Not necessarily a ground ball, but not really a line drive. So, it's kind of a tweener in a big spot for him. To make that read and score is really big for our team." 

While the Pirates weren't getting their desired results against Mikolas in the early going, staying committed to the offensive game plan was key, according to Joe. 

"Like, we have a plan and these are big-league pitchers, right, so it's like -- we're not always going to touch them up," Joe said. "We did a really good job to weather the storm. Attack when we got some traffic there, right. Sometimes it happens in nine. Sometimes it happens in the third. It's a tough game, it's a team game. So, keep trusting one another that we'll get the job done."