PITTSBURGH _ The Cardinals got rid of the main attraction, Chris Archer, early enough in his Pittsburgh Pirates debut Friday night. They knocked out the recently acquired Tampa Bay right-hander in the fifth inning but they shot themselves in the foot too many times offensively.
Three times they left the bases loaded and altogether they stranded 16 runners, besides losing three others on the bases, in a 7-6 setback that easily could have gone the other way.
All-Star catcher Yadier Molina notably had a rough night, stranding five runners in scoring position, twice failing after intentional walks to Matt Carpenter, as he went nothing for his first five before singling in the ninth and becoming the 16th runner stranded.
After chasing the game from the bottom of the first on, the Cardinals finally caught up at 6-6 in the eighth. Marcell Ozuna was hit by a pitch and Tyler O'Neill singled for the third time. Ozuna boldly went to third against center fielder Starling Marte and O'Neill alertly went to second when Marte's throw to third was off line.
Jedd Gyorko's groundout up the middle scored the tying run but Dexter Fowler's smash to first resulted in O'Neill, who stuck in the dirt on his headfirst slide, being thrown out at the plate by David Freese. They would leave two more runners on in this inning and Fowler, who came up lame at third with a left foot contusion, had to leave the game.
Soon, the Pirates had their last lead and the game when Adam Frazier singled in the eighth off Jordan Hicks for his third hit to score Josh Harrison, who had beaten out an infield hit. Only a spectacular catch by new right fielder Yairo Munoz kept the inning at one run but All-Star Felipe Vazquez closed it down in the ninth.
