PITTSBURGH — The two cornerstones of the Cardinals’ season have been pitching and defense. The Cardinals have boasted one of the top-five pitching staffs and rotations for much of the season despite a carousel of contributors, and their defense has ranked tops in the majors despite playing fewer games than any other team in those majors. The two legs of this three-legged stool have been able to support it even when the third leg, offense, comes up short.
The Cardinals needed the lineup to carry them for at least a game.
The Cardinals committed four errors, including a catcher’s interference with the bases loaded, and hung on for a 6-5 victory in Game 1 of a doubleheader. The Pirates loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, but a fly ball to left field ended the game.
Ryan Helsley secured his first save of the season.
That win ended a four-game losing streak to the Pirates.
Two errors in the fourth inning bumped starter Carlos Martinez from the game and allowed the Pirates to narrow the Cardinals’ lead to 6-5. An error on right fielder Tommy Edman — he overran the ball — turned a two-run single into a bases-clearing event for the Pirates. Instead of a two-run lead, the Cardinals had a one-run lead when all three runs scored on Ke’Bryan Hayes’ single to right.
All three runs were unearned because of an earlier error by shortstop Paul DeJong on a grounder.
The inning was further complicated by a slow roller down the third-base line that never slipped foul.
The Cardinals built a lead of 5-1 by scoring in nibbles, but scoring in every one of the first four innings. Kolten Wong hit his second career leadoff homer, and his first homer of the season. That gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Martinez walked the bases loaded in the first inning to squander that lead. The Cardinals got it back on Tyler O’Neill’s two-run homer in the second, and then Paul Goldschmidt’s double put another two-run rally in motion in the third.
Goldschmidt doubled home Edman and then scored on DeJong’s sacrifice fly.
Yadier Molina had two hits to get to 1,993 in his career. He scored the Cardinals’ fifth run in the fourth inning when he came home on Wong’s RBI groundout.
Martinez allowed two runs before he allowed a hit because of the walks. He settled for a good stretch of the start, and even loosed some higher-velocity fastballs, throwing with some of the panache that has been missing from his few starts this season. Martinez allowed five runs, but only one of them was earned because of all the defensive shenanigans.
One of the runs scored on a catcher’s interference with the bases loaded. It was Molina’s second catcher’s interference of the week after going seasons without one. And both have come with the bases loaded.
Martinez threw 3 2/3 innings and needed 77 pitches to do it.
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