Bart Gives Pirates Walk-Off Win After Epic Pitchers’ Duel

PITTSBURGH — Joey Bart’s walk-off single in the 13th to deep left field for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the St. Louis Cardinals settled a 2-1 pitchers’ duel at PNC Park on Wednesday afternoon. 

With Isiah Kiner-Falefa standing on second as the automatic runner, Cardinals reliever Chris Roycroft (0-2) issued back-to-back walks to load the bases for Andrew McCutchen, who bounced into a force play at home.

Bart then hit a fly ball to the warning track in left field, over the head of Lars Nootbaar to easily score Kiner-Falefa from third base.

JOEY BARRELS 👏 pic.twitter.com/Z4RPBs8W22

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) April 9, 2025

How We Got There

Fedde threw 6.0 no-hit innings before being replaced with Phil Maton in the seventh inning. The Pirates (5-8) drew leadoff walks in four of the first five innings against him and had the leadoff guy on in five of the six innings but failed to get a baserunner to second base.

The Pirates ended the combined no-hit bid with two outs in the seventh on an Endy Rodríguez line drive single to right field.

Keller, meanwhile, scattered four hits across 7.1-shutout innings. At one point, the right-hander retired 15 batters in a row before an Alec Burleson double with two outs in the seventh.

Rodríguez opened the 10th as the automatic runner and advanced to third base on Adam Frazier’s groundout. After an intentional walk to Tommy Pham. The Pirates also came up empty in the 10th against JoJo Romero. 

Dennis Santana and Ryan Borucki combined for a scoreless top of the 11th and Lars Nootbaar prevented the Pirates from scoring by throwing out Alexander Canario at home on Joey Bart’s single to right.

With runners on the corners and one out in the 12th, Jordan Walker, who was pinch-hitting to face Justin Lawrence, fought one off into the right field to plate automatic runner Willson Contreras. Tommy Pham came through in the clutch and delivered a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the inning to get the game to the 13th, where Lawrence (1-0) delivered another zero. 

Key Moment

Keller left the game after a base hit and a walk put two on with one out. Reliever Caleb Ferguson retired Lars Nootbaar before preventing the Cardinals (5-7) from scoring on a heads-up tag by third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes following a collision on a pop-up in front of home plate.

Pirates still get the out after a MASSIVE collision between Endy Rodriguez and Joey Bart pic.twitter.com/Cc8QodFRII

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 9, 2025

Star of the Game

Keller and Fedde were both fantastic but the game would still be going on had it not been for Bart’s heroics. He was the only one in the game with multiple hits.

Notable Pirates’ Performances

• Mitch Keller: 7.1 innings, four hits, no runs, one walk, six strikeouts, 96 pitches/64 strikes
• Joey Bart: 2 for 5, one RBI
• Tommy Pham: 1 for 3, one RBI, two walks
• Ke’Bryan Hayes: 1 for 4, one walk, one run
• Bryan Reynolds: 0 for 3, three walks

Stat to Know

Mitch Keller’s strikeout of Pedro Pagés in the seventh inning was his fifth of the game and the 700th of his career. He became the fastest pitcher in franchise history to reach 700 strikeouts by innings pitched (718.1). 

Noteworthy

• Tsung-Che Cheng made his MLB debut at shortstop and hit ninth. He went 0 for 2, reached on an error, was caught stealing and recorded two assists. The Pirates promoted him from Triple-A Indianapolis on Monday

Up Next

The Pirates have a day off on Thursday and will travel to Cincinnati for a weekend series with the Reds. LHP Bailey Falter (0-1, 8.10 ERA) will start for Pittsburgh. The Reds have yet to announce a starter.