PITTSBURGH _ Josh Bell knew hit when he hit it. He took a hop step as his home run flew over the left-field fence, giving the Pirates a 5-2 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park Friday.
Adam Frazier poked a ball down the left-field line against Seung Hwan Oh in the ninth. Tommy Pham cut it off before it reached the corner, but Frazier still tried for second and just got there. After an out, the Cardinals intentionally walked Andrew McCutchen to bring up Bell.
Bell hit a 1-2 fastball the opposite way to end the game.
Friday's game marked the beginning of a stretch during which the Pirates can make up some ground. After seven games at home against the Cardinals, who are ahead of them in the NL Central standings, and the Milwaukee Brewers, who lead the division, the Pirates head west on a nine-game, three-city road trip. That trip begins with three games against the Colorado Rockies, who began the weekend at 52-39, but six games against the San Francisco Giants (34-56) and San Diego Padres (38-50) follow.
Bank a couple victories against the Cardinals and Brewers and the Pirates can close the gap. Have a bad homestand and the argument to add to before the trade deadline weakens. But manager Clint Hurdle will leave that thought process to his front office.
"It'd be great to get out to a really breakneck start," Hurdle said before the game. "It'd be really wonderful to have a great homestand. However, it starts (Friday), and what I've learned over 43 years of experience, why, again, 'we're going to crack the whip, we're going to play harder, we're going to prepare better now, this 10-game stretch before the trade deadline, than we have the other 90 games we've already played?' If there is any truth to that, we've missed the boat in the first 90 games.
"These guys know it's important. It's the Cardinals. It's a homestand. We'll get to the Brewers when we're done with the Cardinals. Right now we've got our hands full with (Mike) Leake and the Cardinals."
Leake had a lead before he took the mound. The Cardinals worked deep counts and drove up Gerrit Cole's pitch count in the first inning _ six pitches to Matt Carpenter, nine to Dexter Fowler, eight to Jedd Gyorko. The final pitch Gyorko saw, he sent into the seats in center field for a two-run homer.
Cole needed 29 pitches to complete the first inning, then 53 in the next four, or slightly more than 13 per inning. The only base-runner he allowed in those four innings was Yadier Molina, who hit a two-out single in the fourth.
The Pirates got one back in the third on Bell's RBI single. They had another chance in the fourth but Gregory Polanco got careless on the bases.
Polanco lined a ball off the top of the wall in center field that bounced away from Fowler, but Polanco did exactly not run hard out of the box; he might not have had a triple regardless, but he ended up on second. After reaching third on a grounder, Polanco was in no hurry to return to the bag after a pitch. Molina threw down with Polanco's back turned, Gyorko made the tag and after a review, Polanco was out.
The crowd booed. They booed louder when Cole jogged to first on a grounder that resulted in an errant throw, and booed Polanco again when he took the field for the top of the fifth.
A bit of redemption came in the bottom half. Leake erased a leadoff single with a double play, then walked the bases loaded to bring Polanco to the plate. Polanco ripped a single into right field to tie the game at 2-2.
