Pirates’ Bats Silenced Again in 4-0 Loss to Cardinals

After recording just one hit last night against the Cardinals, the Pirates again could not get the bats going, this time against the veteran Adam Wainwright in a shutout loss to St. Louis.

The loss marked the seventh straight for the Pirates, who as a team have only managed to score 12 times in those seven games.

In front of a crowd of 8,548, the Pirates were able to muster just two hits, both singles from Colin Moran who was 2-for-3. The rest of the lineup went a combined 0-for-25 with seven strikeouts.

Wainwright retired the last 15 batters he faced, and 23 of the final 24 batters of the game.

Pirates’ starter Wil Crowe faced the minimum through three.  In the fourth, Yadier Molina drove home Paul Goldshmidt but the Pirates got out of the inning after Nolan Arendo got caught in between second and third.

The real trouble for Crowe came in the fifth; after a diving catch by Anthony Alford, Paul DeJong followed with a base hit to left, and Crowe then got Tommy Edman to pop out to shallow center. After a seven-pitch at-bat, Wainwright roped a ground rule double over the left field wall. The next batter Dylan Carlson drew a walk, and Derek Shelton made the call to the bullpen.

On a 3-1 pitch, Nick Mears, who relieved Crowe, induced a ground out to second baseman Rodolfo Castro with the bases loaded, escaping a jam and keeping the Pirates’ deficit at 1-0.

In the sixth, with two on and two out, Cody Ponce had DeJong down 0-2, but hung a breaking ball that was shot out to right center for a double, scoring two. After an intentional walk to Edman, Adam Wainwright collected his second hit of the ball game, this one an RBI single.

Intentionally walk someone to face @UncleCharlie50 at your own risk. pic.twitter.com/oHoSzXVtvb

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 12, 2021

On the mound, the nearly 40-year old Wainwright was dominate, and efficient. He pitched the unofficial “Maddux,” a complete game shutout that took less than 100 pitches – this one taking him just 88.

The Pirates will look to salvage the series tomorrow afternoon, first pitch is 12:35. JT Brubaker (4-11, 4.95 ERA) vs. Wade LeBlanc (0-1, 3.12 ERA) is the pitching matchup.

Stat of the Game:

• Wainwright picked up his 19th win against the Pirates for his career, the most he has against any opponent.

Takeaways: 

• When There’s a Wil There’s a Way: Even with some late struggles tonight, Crowe has been better over his last four starts. In 20.0 innings pitched, he’s allowed six earned runs – good for a 2.70 ERA.
• Scared Hitless: The Pirates have managed only three hits in their last 21 innings of baseball.
• Waino-htani: Wainwright did it all today, pitching nine dazzling innings and collecting a double and an RBI on two hits.
• August Angst: With the loss, the Pirates fell to 1-9 in the month of August.