Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz hit back-to-back RBI singles in the 10th inning, helping the Pittsburgh Pirates come from behind to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Pittsburgh’s Colin Holderman gave up a two-run homer to Willson Contreras in the eighth inning, tying the game at 3-3.
St. Louis took the lead in the 10th inning on Alec Burleson’s sacrifice fly off Aroldis Chapman (1-3), scoring Dylan Carlson who advanced to third on Masyn Winn’s infield single.
In the bottom of the 10th, with Jared Triolo on second as the automatic runner, Michael A. Taylor attempted a bunt but struck out, and Andrew McCutchen walked off Andrew Kittridge (1-4).
JoJo Romero took over on the mound, and Bryan Reynolds hit a line drive to center field, bringing home Triolo and moving McCutchen to second. On the next pitch, Oneil Cruz hit a sharp ground ball to right field, allowing McCutchen to score easily as the ball bounced to the wall.
“We gave up a key homer to a tough hitter in the eighth,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton about Contreras’ home run. “But our team kept pushing and playing hard.”
This was Cruz’s second walk-off hit of the season and the third of his career.
“It felt great to contribute, but it was a collective effort,” Cruz said. “Everyone played a role in our comeback to win the game.”
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol opted not to use Ryan Helsley, who leads MLB with 31 saves, due to his recent workload of pitching five times in the past eight days.
“We have a few guys who are out and have pitched a lot,” Marmol explained. “We have to find ways to win games without them sometimes. We did our best with the matchups we had towards the end of the game.”
