Yoshi Tsutsugo lifts Pirates past Cardinals, as Mars alum David Bednar earns 1st MLB save

The Pittsburgh Pirates arrived in St. Louis trying to snap a five-game losing streak. Now, they are on the brink of sweeping the Cardinals and spoiling their Hall of Fame weekend at Busch Stadium.

Where the Cardinals presented red jackets to some of their all-time greats in a pregame ceremony, the Pirates ended the game by celebrating the first career major league save by Mars alum David Bednar.

Yoshi Tsutsugo homered for the second consecutive game and delivered an RBI double in the seventh inning to lead the Pirates to a 5-4 victory Saturday night, one manager Derek Shelton called a “good team win.”

“I think it speaks to the effort our guys go out with every night,” Shelton said. “This is a rambunctious crowd. They get into it. They’re into the game every night. They have a lot of things going on. They’re a good team that’s in a playoff hunt, and our guys came out and played well.”

It was the second consecutive win for the Pirates, who got home runs from Kevin Newman in the third and Tsutsugo in the fourth and a two-run single by Ke’Bryan Hayes in the seventh. The Pirates (44-79) will attempt their first series sweep of the season Sunday against Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals (62-60).

“It’s awesome any time you can get especially two games at someone’s home turf,” Hayes said. “Regardless of our record, we’re still going out there every day trying to play as hard as we can and win games.”

Tsutsugo went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run scored. Since signing with the Pirates on Monday, Tsutsugo is batting .385 (5 for 13 with three doubles and two homers in five games.

“He continues to have good, big at-bats, consistent at-bats,” Shelton said. “It’s good to see. When you add a guy to your club and he continues to play well, or starts to play well, right from the get-go, it’s nice.”

It proved contagious, as the Pirates pounded out 12 hits against four Cardinals pitchers. That they hit lefty J.A. Happ hard from the start was a good sign. Happ had allowed one run on two hits and two walks in 13 1/3 innings over two starts against the Pirates this season, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning in a 2-0 win with the Minnesota Twins on April 23 and six one-hit innings in a 4-1 win for St. Louis on Aug. 10.

Kevin Newman hit a 3-2 four-seam fastball 389 feet to left field for a home run and a 1-0 lead to lead off the third inning. The Cardinals tied it at 1-1 when Tommy Edman drew a two-out walk and scored on Paul Goldschmidt’s double over the outstretched glove of Gregory Polanco in right field. Tsutsugo drilled a first-pitch 90-mph fastball 430 feet to straightaway center to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the fourth.

Pirates lefty Dillon Peters allowed one run on three hits and one walk in five innings in his second start. The Cardinals fared better against righty reliever Nick Mears, as Tyler O’Neill singled, stole second base and scored on Yadier Molina’s single to tie the game at 2-2.

Lars Nootbar grounded into a forceout of Molina at second but scored on Edmundo Sosa’s double to the left-center gap for a 3-2 lead. After Mears walked Harrison Bader, the Pirates brought in Chasen Shreve (2-1), who struck out pinch hitter Matt Carpenter to end the inning.

The Pirates took the lead against Genesis Cabrera (2-4) in the seventh, when Newman singled and took third after he saw Cardinals rookie right fielder Lars Nootbaar bobble Gamel’s two-out single. Hayes, who was 2 for 17 on the road trip, followed with a two-run single to right to give the Pirates a 4-3 advantage.

The Cardinals intentionally walked Bryan Reynolds, and Tsutsugo doubled to the left-center gap to score Hayes to make it 5-3. Reynolds, however, was thrown out at the plate while trying to score from first.

Chad Kuhl, activated from the covid-injured list Friday, made his debut out of the bullpen in the seventh. The Cardinals quickly loaded the bases with three successive singles, the last coming on a line drive by Nolan Arenado off the glove of a diving Gamel in left.

O’Neill drove in Edman with a sacrifice fly to left to cut it to 5-4, but Kuhl recovered to strike out Molina and Nootbaar – fooling him on a curveball – to escape the jam with minimal damage.

“I thought it was good. He ended working out of a tough situation,” Shelton said, adding that he expects a learning curve for Kuhl in terms of preparation. “The fact that he came in, executed pitches and did not speed up on him in his first time out of the bullpen was definitely a positive sign.”

Chris Stratton pitched a scoreless eighth, thanks to a pair of nice plays by Hayes. The rookie third baseman leaned over the railing at the visiting dugout to catch a pop fly in foul territory for the final out.

Bednar got his first save opportunity in the ninth and, after allowing an Edman single through shortstop in a defensive shift, he got Paul Goldschmidt to fly out to center, struck out Arenado on a 1-2 curveball and got O’Neill to ground out to third for his first save.

“I was just trying to treat it like every other outing, just go out there and let it rip and pitch with conviction,” Bednar said. “It was definitely cool, definitely going to games growing up and seeing all those guys that came through there, guys I watched growing up. To get the first one out of the way is pretty cool, pretty special.”