Cardinals Shutout in Pittsburg
07/24/2024 07:26 PM
The Cardinals fell to the Pirates by a score of 5-0 in Pittsburg Wednesday afternoon dropping the final game of a three game set.
St. Louis sent Mathew Liberatore to the mound to make his sixth start off the 2024 campaign and it didn't take long for the southpaw to find trouble. In the bottom of the second the Pirates would have runners on first and second after a hit by pitch and single to start the inning. Liberatore would get Joey Bart to strikeout but would give up an RBI single to Rowdy Tellez that gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead.
A walk to the next batter would load them up for Andrew McCutchen who would work the count full and ultimately draw a walk to double the pirates lead 2-0. The big blow in the inning would come off the bat of Connor Joe who smacked a 2-run double in the left center gap that popped in and out of Dylan Carlson's glove extending the lead to 4-0.
Liberatore's day would end in the fourth inning after giving up a leadoff home run to Rowdy Tellez bringing the lead to 5-0. This would give Liberatore a final line of three plus innings pitched giving up five runs on four hits three walks while striking out three.
This performance drops Liberatore's record to 2-3 on the season and of the six starts the lefty has made this year he has only been able to make it through four innings one time.
The Cardinals would threaten in the top of the fifth inning on singles from Winn and Pagés putting runners on first and second with two out. Burleson would draw a four pitch walk loading the bases for Willson Contreras. After a short battle, he would groundout to third base to end the inning squandering their best run scoring opportunity of the game.
The offense could not get anything going today and that was largely due to grounding into three double plays. That coupled with the 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position made it a very stagnant day for an offense that only scored three runs in the series coming into this afternoon.
The few bright spots for the offense would be Masyn Winn's two single day and Paul Goldschmidt who accounted for the Cardinals only extra base with a sixth innings double.
After the rough start from Liberatore, the bullpen was able to come in and shut the Pirates down. Chris Roycroft and Giovanny Gallegos came in and combined for five innings only giving up one hit and striking out two.
This is the third time in seven appearances since coming back for the injured list that Gallegos has been asked to go more than one inning. The righty has only given up one earned run over that span. After early season struggles it looks like the righty has carved himself a role in this bullpen.
This ends a six game road trip coming off the All-Star break where the Cardinals broke even at 3-3. They will be off Thursday but will welcome fourth place Nationals to Busch Stadium Friday evening when they send ace Sonny Gray to the mount. First pitch is set for 7:15 PM CST.
