Cardinals crank out 15 hits to pound Pirates, clinch series

Trevor Cahill allowed three of the first four batters he faced to reach base and already gave up a run by the time he faced Paul DeJong with runners on first and second base in the first inning.

DeJong cleared the bases with a three-run homer to get the St. Louis Cardinals started, and a five-run ninth put the finishing touches on their 12-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Saturday night before 7,331 at PNC Park.

“I think the way we avoid it is we make some plays early in the game,” Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier said. “Keep runs off the board for the other team, and hopefully we’d like to get to the starting pitchers a little earlier than what we’ve been doing. … The last two or three games, we’ve started a little slow and had to play from behind.”

It was the third consecutive loss for the Pirates (12-14) and clinched their first series loss since April 5-7, when they were swept in three games at Cincinnati. The Pirates had won three of their past five series, splitting four games with San Diego and two with Kansas City. The defeat also dropped the Pirates into a fourth-place tie with the Reds in the NL Central, with a half-game lead over the Chicago Cubs.

The Cardinals (15-12) got to Cahill from the start, as Tommy Edman hit a leadoff double and scored on Paul Goldschmidt’s single to right. Cahill walked Nolan Arenado, then served up the homer to DeJong to put the Pirates in a 4-0 hole. Arenado went 3 for 4 with a double, triple and walk and three RBIs, Goldschmidt went 3 for 4 and scored four runs and Tommy Edman went 4 for 6.

“I felt pretty comfortable in the first. It was just that one bad pitch,” Cahill said. “I made a mistake, and he didn’t miss it. I think that was the biggest thing, a little dagger to the heart right there in the first.”

The Pirates cut it to 4-1 in the second on Ka’ai Tom’s sacrifice fly. After Colin Moran’s leadoff single and Gregory Polanco’s double off the Clemente Wall, Kevin Newman drew a walk to load the bases for Tom, who had drawn four walks in five plate appearances.

Tom fouled off three of Flaherty’s first six pitches, then lined a 2-2 slider to Gold Glove winner Tyler O’Neill in left. Moran scored when O’Neill’s throw to the plate bounced off the glove of Andrew Knizner, filling in at catcher for Yadier Molina (foot).

The Cardinals stretched their lead to 5-1 in the third on O’Neill’s RBI single to left to score Goldschmidt, but the Pirates answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning on successive run-scoring singles by Moran and Polanco – who poked one off Arenado’s glove and into left – to cut it to 5-3.

Cahill (1-3) allowed five runs on seven hits and three walks with five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings, and was replaced with one out in the sixth after walking Harrison Bader.

“In Trevor’s case, he settled down and started to execute, and was really in control after that,” Shelton said. “He kept them off balance, he left the one ball up for the three-run homer that was just a bad breaking ball.”

Sam Howard finished the sixth but started the seventh by walking Carlson and giving up a single to Goldschmidt. Nolan Arenado followed with a fly ball to left that bounced under the glove of a sliding Tom for the second game in a row, scoring both runners to give the Cardinals a 7-3 lead.

Jack Flaherty (5-0), by contrast, struck out nine Pirates while giving up three runs on six hits in six innings. Jordan Hicks replaced Flaherty for two outs in the seventh, but gave up a double to Adam Frazier and was pulled with a full count on Reynolds.

The Cardinals sent in lefty Genesis Cabrera, forcing the switch-hitting Reynolds to bat righty. It backfired in a big way when he doubled to left to score Frazier to cut it to 7-4. Moran took advantage of the lefty-on-lefty matchup by dropping a single to left between O’Neill and a diving center fielder Harrison Bader to drive in Reynolds and slice the Cardinals’ lead to 7-5.

The Cardinals added five more runs in the ninth off Sean Poppen. Goldschmidt hit a leadoff double when the ball skimmed off the top of Tom’s glove, and scored on Arenado’s triple to right. O’Neill singled to score Arenado, advanced to third when Poppen made a throwing error to second on a Andrew Knizner comebacker on a double-play attempt and scored on Bader’s groundout. Pinch hitter Justin Williams followed with a 419-foot, two-run homer into the bullpen to give the Cardinals a seven-run lead.

“I mean, obviously, we were out of that inning if we complete the double-play ball,” Shelton said. “It was a one-hop, routine double-play ball that we threw away. The slider command was something that stood out. Even on the second hitter he faced, he threw multiple that were wide and then really never got it back until the last hitter.”

It was the third consecutive game that the Pirates’ relievers gave up four or more runs, after being a team strength for most of April.

“That’s one of the things about bullpens — they can be really good and then they can hit rough patches,” Shelton said. “We’ve just got to make sure that we try to put guys in the right spots and get back rolling again.”