Ever since Adam Wainwright became a regular in the St. Louis Cardinals rotation back in 2007, he has regularly become a thorn in the side of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Their last victory against him on his home turf came back on June 29, 2012, plus he’s the man who ended the Pirates last playoff run with a complete game victory in Game 5 of the 2013 NLDS. It doesn’t get much more defeating than that, and on Saturday afternoon it wasn’t any different.
In six innings of work Wainwright allowed a single run, whike striking out eight Pirates batters walking only one in an extremely efficient 102 pitch outing. On the way to a 3-1 victory over Pittsburgh.
News and Notes
- JT Brubaker fought his way through this game by never stopping his attack on the zone, throwing 67% of his pitches for strikes. However, the long ball has continued to plague him as he has now given up 13 on the season. Of course it isn’t at a Kyle Hendricks level (19) yet, but still not great.
- It was nice to see Colin Moran really get ahold of one in the top of the 8th; a strongly hit double that came off the bat at 103.9 mph.
- Gregory Polanco showed why he is still in the lineup, like it or not, as he blasted his 8th home run of the season off of Wainwright in the top of the 4th for the Pirates lone run.
- Erik Gonzalez is on another one of his streaks. Over the last 15 games he is batting .306, although his OPS during this time only sits at .686.
- OK, we can let Tom go. For a time his .400+ OBP in his time with Pittsburgh was intriguing; however, now with only 4 walks and 2 hits in the month of June, it is beyond time to move on.
- Max Kranick got the word on Wednesday from Indianapolis Indians Pitching Coach Joel Hanrahan that he would be getting the call up to start for the Pirates, while were all made aware of the decision just prior to yesterday’s game. So, far this season Kranick-who was added to the 40-Man in the off-season to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft-has started seven games between AA-Altoona and AAA-Indianapolis; posting a 4.37 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP, with 36 strikeouts and only 9 walks in 35 innings. Currently ranked as the Pirates #26 Prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, Kranick is simply making a spot start and most likely will return to AAA, no matter the outcome of the game; however I would expect this to become a pattern for the remainder of season.
The Pirates and Cardinals finish off their four game series this afternoon at 2:15 PM with the aforementioned Max Kranick making his MLB debut for Pittsburgh, while Johan Oviedo (0-3, 4.62 ERA) takes the ball for St. Louis.
Inside The Bucs Basement 