The Pittsburgh Pirates started their series in St. Louis on Monday with Oneil Cruz making the fastest throw in the major leagues with a 100-mph strike to get Victor Scott II out at home plate.
The Cardinals center fielder showed why he’s one of the fastest players in the majors in the series finale, using his elite sprint speed to score twice from first base.
Behind Scott’s baserunning and Sonny Gray’s eight strikeouts over seven scoreless innings, the Cardinals blanked the Pirates, 5-0, on Wednesday afternoon at Busch Stadium to sweep the three-game series.
It was the second consecutive series sweep and seventh straight loss for the Pirates (12-26), who have dropped 10 of their past 11 games.
“I think just throwing the expectations on there does make it a little worse, obviously,” Pirates starting pitcher Mitch Keller said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “But nobody likes losing.”
The Pirates aren’t just losing. They are off to their worst start since 2006, have been shut out an MLB-high seven times this season and swept four times. The challenge is maintaining morale as they attempt to end their skid Friday against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park.
“We just have to,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get through this.”
The last-place Pirates (12-26) couldn’t get anything going against the Cardinals (19-19), who moved into a second-place tie with the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central standings.
Gray (4-1) held them to two hits and one walk, as the Cardinals right-hander executed his six-pitch mix to both sides of the plate in throwing 60 of 89 for strikes and drawing 24 called strikes and six whiffs. It was the second win over the Pirates this season for Gray, who allowed one run over five innings in a 5-3 win April 8.
“The sinker and cutter looked like they were working,” Shelton said. “I know he hasn’t been sharp as of late, but I think this is the guy we saw earlier in the year.”
Keller (1-4), who hasn’t beaten the Cardinals since August 2021, allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks with six strikeouts over six-plus innings. It was the second straight game they didn’t generate run support for a pitcher who provided a quality start, as Paul Skenes held the Cardinals to two runs over six innings in a 2-1 loss Tuesday.
The Pirates have scored only five runs in their past five games.
“We’ve got to score runs,” Shelton said. “We’re throwing the ball well, and we’re not getting anything to show for it.”
Keller allowed two runs in a 30-pitch third inning that saw Scott show off his speed. Scott drew a one-out walk, then raced home when Lars Nootbaar singled to shallow right, beating Liover Peguero’s relay throw to the plate to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
“It’s kind of crazy having people score from first,” Keller said. “They’re a fast team, and they make plays happen.”
Nootbaar was 0 for 16 against the Pirates this season entering the game, including 0 for 7 in the first two games of the series, but went 3 for 4 on Wednesday. Masyn Winn followed with a bloop that rolled down the right-field line for a double, scoring Nootbaar to make it 2-0.
“They scored a run when Scott was moving on a single – and we’re talking about one of the faster guys in the game – then a ground ball down the line and a jam shot,” Shelton said. “I thought, overall, (Keller) had really good stuff.”
Gray retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced before Andrew McCutchen reached on interference by catcher Pedro Pages with one out in the fourth. Joey Bart drew a full-count walk to put runners on first and second, but Enmanuel Valdez popped up to third and Ke’Bryan Hayes went down looking at a sinker for a called third strike.
Scott led off the fifth with a line drive to left, then raced home from first again on another double by Winn when the ball kicked off the short wall along the left-field line to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.
In the eighth, the Pirates got a leadoff single by Tommy Pham and a one-out single by Oneil Cruz, but Kyle Leahy struck out Reynolds and got McCutchen to ground out to second to protect the advantage.
The Cardinals made it 5-0 in the bottom of the eighth. Brendan Donovan singled and advanced to third on Luken Baker’s broken-bat double to left off lefty Caleb Ferguson, and both runners scored when Jordan Walker singled up the middle off Colin Holderman.
“I think we just need to keep going, honestly,” Keller said. “There’s things that happened out there today, balls bouncing the wrong way. We just have to come together. It’s not calling each other out, but we’ve got to be more accountable on our side in this clubhouse. For me, I’ve got to execute better. I can’t give up little base hits for runs. We’ve got to know the situations. There’s just a lot of things we need to internally clean up.”