ST. LOUIS — Big brother Joshua Palacios and the Pirates got the last laugh.
In the final inning of a back-and-forth game, one that seemed destined to be decided by the Cardinals’ three home runs, Palacios stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter and sent things in a different direction.
Primarily out to right-center field for a game-deciding homer, his blast carrying the Pirates to a 7-6 victory on a gorgeous Saturday night at Busch Stadium.
Not bad for someone who was scratched from Friday’s lineup due to left wrist discomfort.
Palacios worked his way into a 3-1 count against Drew VerHagen and crushed a down-and-in four-seamer from the Cardinals right-handed reliever.
The homer was the seventh of Palacios’ career. Three of those have come against the Cardinals, the team that currently employs his younger brother, Richie.
Palacios’ bomb continued his success as a pinch hitter — he’s now second in the National League with seven on the season — and it stretched the Pirates’ winning streak to five games. They can finish a perfect Missouri trip by sweeping the Cardinals on Sunday.
Now 63-73, the Pirates improved to 22-19 in their last 41 games. And they did so thanks to David Bednar’s 31st save, where the Cardinals put runners on second and third with one out. Bednar finished it by striking out Lars Nootbaar and getting Paul Goldschmidt to bounce out to shortstop.
Until Palacios’ two-run bomb, which followed Andrew McCutchen getting drilled by a pitch, it looked like Jordan Walker’s two-run homer off Colin Selby in the seventh inning would be the difference.
Selby, who took a comebacker off the bottom of his cleat Friday, missed his mark with a 1-0 sinker and paid the price. Walker, who had been 8 for 14 prior to Saturday and was sporting a .940 OPS in his previous 10 games, did not miss. The rookie right fielder crushed Selby’s offering 421 feet at 105.1 mph.
Keeping the Cardinals in the park has actually been a strong suit of Pirates pitchers this season. Entering Saturday, the pitching staff had recorded a 2.68 ERA through the first 11 games of the season series, eight of those victories.
Trailing, 4-3, after having erased an early 3-0 deficit, the Pirates (62-73) took the lead with a pair of runs in the sixth inning, the first coming on Miguel Andujar’s double, the second on a single from Ji Hwan Bae.
The Pirates have certainly been looking for this type of production out of Andujar, who hit .338 with a .940 OPS in Triple-A. Right-handed reliever Jacob Barnes threw Andujar a fastball up in the zone, and the Pirates outfielder blasted it to right field.
That tied the game at 4 before Bae pushed the Pirates in front with his single to right. It was a solid swing for Bae to get around on a cutter and pull it with authority. It was also the second hit in the game for Bae, the speedster whose 22 steals are the most for a Pirates rookie since McCutchen had that same total in 2009.
Few players have tortured the Pirates quite like Tyler O’Neill, who entered Saturday’s game with 10 home runs in 60 career games against them. O’Neill added to that total with a three-run blast off Thomas Hatch in the second inning.
Hatch threw O’Neill a first-pitch change-up, and O’Neill smashed it into the left-field seats for a 3-0 Cardinals advantage.
ON THE MOUND
The Pirates’ experimentation with openers continued in this one, and once again, it actually worked out well. Hatch gave up the homer but otherwise fared well, requiring just seven pitches in the opening frame.
Even on the homer, Hatch probably wanted to get it a little further down in the zone. But it wasn’t an awful pitch.
Bailey Falter followed Hatch and mostly fared well. Falter retired six of the first seven men he faced — the exception was a two-out walk to second baseman Tommy Edman — before Nootbaar crushed a poorly locate slider from Falter.
The left-hander absolutely hung this one, allowing Nootbaar to crank it 416 feet at 107.2 mph. That tied the score at 4 in the fifth inning.
Cody Bolton earned his first major league win with a 1-2-3 eighth.
AT THE PLATE
The Cardinals’ 3-0 lead lasted until the Pirates chipped away in the fourth and fifth, with Connor Joe, Bryan Reynolds and McCutchen collecting RBIs. Joe, who has reached base safely in 16 of his last 18, tripled to center field on a ball that Nootbaar probably should have played on a bounce.
He didn’t, and it rolled slowly to the wall.
The next inning, Bryan Reynolds got ahead, 2-0, and laced a middle-middle fastball past shortstop Masyn Winn and into left field for a run-scoring single at 106.8 mph.
McCutchen beat Winn the other way, shooting a sinker up the middle to make it a 3-3 game.
UP NEXT
Johan Oviedo will start against his former team Sunday. He’s 3-1 with a 1.73 ERA in his last four road starts.