ST. LOUIS _ Eric Fryer was first. He ran out of the dugout and settled in behind the plate. But everyone else hung back in the Pirates dugout for a few moments, letting Tyler Glasnow stride to the mound alone.
Glasnow made his major league debut Thursday. Promoted due to injuries, or finally called upon to rescue the rotation, depending on your perspective, Baseball America's No. 14 prospect in all of baseball took the Busch Stadium mound against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Glasnow pitched well. So did Adam Wainwright, Glasnow's opponent. So it was that two hanging curveballs and an ill-timed wild pitch provided the Cardinals enough offense for a 5-1 victory.
The loss ended the Pirates' winning streak at seven games and prevented a series sweep of the Cardinals. After finishing their road trip at 7-2, the Pirates (44-42) return home for three games before the All-Star break. The division-leading Chicago Cubs await them. They will send Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester and John Lackey to the mound.
Glasnow (0-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed three hits. He walked two batters and struck out five.
Glasnow hung a curveball to Aledmys Diaz in the fourth inning. Diaz hit it off the top of the wall in left-center, about four inches from being a home run, and ended up with a triple. Glasnow's wild pitch brought Diaz home.
The following inning, Glasnow hung another curveball, this time to Randal Grichuk, who homered to deep left-center.
Greg Garcia doubled to begin the home sixth. The Cardinals gave Glasnow an out on a sacrifice, but manager Clint Hurdle removed Glasnow after a four-pitch walk to Matt Holliday. Glasnow had allowed only two runs at that point. The total doubled when Arquimedes Caminero allowed a three-run homer to Stephen Piscotty.
After walking the leadoff batter, Glasnow retired nine batters in a row. He did not allow a hit until the fourth inning. His fastball began the game in the low 90s and gained velocity as the game progressed, topping out at 97 mph. Despite hanging two curveballs, Glasnow showed good feel for the pitch, using it as a get-me-over pitch when behind in the count. He ran only four three-ball counts against 21 batters, got ahead in the count to 13 of them and threw 54 of 87 pitches for strikes.
Matt Joyce doubled and scored in the second inning, and that was it against Wainwright (8-5). He allowed one run and struck out nine in seven innings.
