PITTSBURGH _ Somewhere in all the strikeouts, pitching changes, wild pitches, errors, and delays for one reason or another, was a compelling ballgame that featured a rally from the Cardinals, a two-out double that nearly upended the game, and a go-ahead homer.
Somewhere in there was drama.
Somewhere in there was the game the Cardinals are trying to play.
It was just muddied and masked by the mess of ink spilled all over the box score.
The Cardinals rallied from a four-run deficit to tie the game in the top of the eighth inning only to fall behind again in the bottom of the inning. The Cardinals rallied again with Jose Martinez's pinch-hit, RBI-double in the ninth to knot the game at 5. That sent the game into extra innings, not because the game deserved them. The go-ahead run scored on a passed ball, and the third out came on a walk that would have loaded the bases but because of a wild pitch the Cardinals ran into an out at home plate.
The game was a 6-5 victory by the Cardinals because Paul DeJong scored in the 11th inning on a passed ball. DeJong had the only hit of the 11th inning _ and all of the action with his hit, two walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch, and a passed ball happened with two outs.
John Gant closed the game to get Jordan Hicks the win. Adam Wainwright started it almost five hours earlier (his results chronicled below).
The game got weird in the 11th inning, as the new home-plate umpire ejected Matt Carpenter and left the Cardinals without a position player on the bench. Carpenter was called out on a check swing, and as he argued Vic Carapazza tossed him. Carapazza had started the game at second base, but he replaced home-plate umpire Jerry Layne in the prolonged seventh inning.
Carpenter's dismissal from the game meant Matt Wieters made his Cardinals debut as a pinch-hitter, and then things really got interesting. Wieters was hit by a pitch, and that helped load the bases so that the go-ahead run scored on a passed ball. Wieters was thrown out at home when he tried to get into a rundown after a wild pitch. And when Wieters took over at catcher in the 11th inning, that moved Yadier Molina to third base.
Molina made his debut at the position as Gant went for the save.
After the Cardinals completed their first rally, Pirates infielder Colin Moran led off the eighth inning with a solo homer off Mike Mayers and into the seats above the Roberto Clemente wall in right field. That snapped the 4-4 tie. Moran homered for the second consecutive year in the Pirates' home opener at PNC Park.
Kolten Wong's third homer of the season put the Cardinals back in the game. He hit a two-run shot over the right-field wall that cut the Pirates' lead in half. Dexter Fowler was hit by a pitch immediately before Wong's homer, and immediately after it Harrison Bader singled to set up the Cardinals' third run. Paul Goldschmidt brought it home with a bases-loaded walk.
Tyler O'Neill, a mid-game addition to the lineup, did what so few others in the Cardinals lineup had so far this season.
With two outs and the tying run in scoring position thanks to a wild pitch, O'Neill turned on a pitch and stuck a double down the left-field line. Chalk popped up to assure everyone in the ballpark of its fairness. O'Neill's two-out, extra-base hit was the Cardinals' first hit of the game with a runner in scoring position. With two outs, the double scored Yairo Munoz and tied the game, briefly at 4.
Munoz had scored an infield hit to set up the rally.
In three of the Cardinals' four at-bats with runners in scoring position before O'Neill's double, they struck out. By the end of the eighth inning, the Cardinals had 15 strikeouts. They also struck out 15 times Sunday. Four of those 15 on Monday came with a runner in scoring position, and 12 times the Cardinals had a runner on base and the hitter struck out.
The Cardinals attempted to undo their own rally by giving Pittsburgh to open up the game again in the seventh inning. Andrew Miller's early-season struggles continued as he entered the seventh with a singular assignment.
Corey Dickerson, left-handed batter, waited at the plate.
Dominic Leone had steered the inning there without little trouble, and he even seemed to get the Cardinals around a two-base error in left-center field committed by Harrison Bader. Leone struck out a batter and got a groundout from the other batter he faced to set up Miller for his job _ getting out the best left-handed hitter in the rival's lineup.
He walked Dickerson on three pitches. He hit Josh Bell.
That loaded the bases and forced the Cardinals once again to go to the bullpen. It was similar to the trouble Miller had in Milwaukee, where he walked Christian Yelich and then tumbled into trouble as the Brewers rallied to win Sunday. The Bucs already had the lead and could have extended it _ but Mayers cooled the rally with a groundout that left three Pirates stranded and the score frozen at 4-3.
Miller failed to retire a batter. He has allowed four hits and seven baserunners in his past three innings pitched.
