Bryan Reynolds hits inside-the-park home run but Pirates' rally falls short against Cardinals

Bryan Reynolds raced around the bases as the long fly ball ricocheted off the top of the wall in the left field cutout and rolled almost to the North Side Notch in left-center as Corey Dickerson chased it.

Reynolds lost his helmet while rounding second but never broke stride and scored standing up before the St. Louis Cardinals could make a relay throw, an inside-the-park home run that had the crowd going crazy.

The two-run homer provided an instant momentum change for the Pittsburgh Pirates, sparking a rally that fell short in a 5-4 loss Saturday night before a crowd of 24,644 at PNC Park.

The Pirates were trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a leadoff single off Cardinals rookie left-hander Matthew Liberatore, who was making his major league debut. Reynolds drilled Liberatore’s 3-2 curveball 367 feet to left and sprinted around the bases, going from the batter’s box to home plate in 16.10 seconds.

“That was when the possible rain was coming and it was howling, so as soon as he hit it I thought it was going to just blow out,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Couldn’t see it, then I saw Corey start to run after it. I mean, I don’t know how that happened because it stayed along the fence and went a long way. As soon as I saw Corey chasing it, you knew it was going to be an inside-the-park homer because you knew Bryan was going to go hard.”

It was the Pirates’ first inside-the-park homer since Starling Marte had one on May 4, 2018, at Milwaukee and the first at PNC Park since Pedro Alvarez hit one off Jake Arrieta on Sept. 13, 2013.

Michael Chavis followed with a double to right, and Ben Gamel drew a walk against Liberatore. The Cardinals brought in Drew VerHagen, but he walked Diego Castillo to load the bases. Yoshi Tsutsugo worked a 3-2 count off VerHagen — including a fly ball down the left-field line that a sliding Dickerson couldn’t corral — before grounding out to short to strand all three runners and end the scoring threat.

The Cardinals loaded up on right-handed hitters to face lefty Jose Quintana, and it led to his shortest outing of the season. They scored four runs in the top of the second, snapping Quintana’s streak of scoreless innings at 14.

“This is a pretty good team with contact,” Quintana said. “I think they have the fewest strikeouts in the (National) League. They put the ball in play all the time. My stuff was good. I think I had a couple soft contact to the holes. I think the leadoff walk was trouble, especially when we face teams like that. I paid for that.”

After Juan Yepez walked and Dylan Carlson singled, Hayes committed an error on a double-play ball by Yadier Molina that instead allowed Yepez to score. It was the sixth error this season by Hayes, who still leads all third basemen with seven defensive runs saved.

“We had a double-play ball with Yadi hitting,” Shelton said, “we didn’t turn it and, all of a sudden, it turned into something else.”

Edmundo Sosa singled to left to score Carlson for a 2-0 lead, and Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run double made it 4-0. Quintana (1-2) gave up five runs (two earned) on seven hits and one walk while striking out four in 3 2/3 innings.

“He wasn’t as sharp as he’s been,” Shelton said. “I think you give the Cardinals credit. They put the bat on the ball and found the outfield grass. They didn’t hit a lot of balls hard, but they found the outfield grass and it was very effective.”

The Pirates answered in the bottom of the inning, when Gamel drew a walk, advanced to third on a Castillo double to left and scored on a wild pitch by Liberatore. Tsutsugo followed with a double to center to score Castillo to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 4-2.

The Cardinals, already playing without left fielder Tyler O’Neill, were forced to shuffle their outfield. They scratched center fielder Harrison Bader two hours before the game. His replacement, Carlson, exited with left hamstring tightness. That forced Cardinals manager Oli Marmol to move Tommy Edman to center field and insert rookie Nolan Gorman at second base. Bader ended up finishing the game in center.

Dickerson doubled to start the fourth and scored on Edman’s single for a 5-2 Cardinals lead. When Goldschmidt singled to put runners on first and third, Shelton replaced Quintana with Duane Underwood Jr.

Gorman, who came in to play second base, doubled down the right field line to put Cardinals runners on second and third in the fifth but Rodolfo Castro fielded Molina’s grounder to short and threw out Yepez at the plate to prevent a run from scoring. Underwood got Edmundo Sosa to ground into a fielder’s choice to escape the jam.

Reynolds’ homer cut it to 5-4 and marked his third consecutive game with two hits, as he went 2 for 4 with a double and the homer to boost his batting average to .231.

“It’s very encouraging,” Shelton said. “I think all along we’ve thought that Bryan Reynolds was going to hit and he just started off the year slow. It’s really encouraging to see his at bats.”

Reynolds’ homer was a fitting end to a wild and wacky week for the Pirates that started with Sunday’s 1-0 win over Cincinnati despite a combined no-hitter by Reds pitchers Hunter Greene and Art Warren, featured a pair of shutout losses at the Chicago Cubs and ended with an inside-the-park homer in a loss to the Cardinals.

“I think in the last two-and-a-half years a lot of weird stuff has happened,” Shelton said, “so I’m just getting used to weird as the norm.”