PITTSBURGH _ The baseball splashed on the pitcher's mound in the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen and sprayed dirt into the air. Jung Ho Kang stood at the plate a little longer than usual and admired the sight. Right-hander Alex Reyes had tested Kang in the eighth inning with a two-strike fastball clocked at 99 mph, and the result was a tape-measure blast that ended the Pirates' eight-game skid.
The wait was not over until Tony Watson got Matt Carpenter to fly out and finish the Pirates' 4-3 win Wednesday night at PNC Park. Watson's 11th save was far from a formality, given how on Tuesday he came a strike away closing matters and then served up a homer to Carpenter, then two others.
The Pirates improved to 68-69 and notched their first win in September. They avoided a sweep and returned to 4{ games behind the Cardinals for the second wild-card spot.
Kang, who homered twice Tuesday, was 3-for-4 Wednesday, including his 17th home run.
Right-hander Mike Leake, in his first start off the disabled list, was fortunate to survive with a no-decision. The Pirates put a runner in scoring position in four of the five innings Leake began. He was lifted after 41/3 innings, with three runs and nine hits charged to his ledger.
Leake allowed two runs on four hits and a walk in the first inning, helped by Francisco Cervelli grounding into a double play with the bases loaded. Cervelli scored in the fourth after he and Jordy Mercer singled, Taillon dropped a sacrifice bunt and Josh Harrison smacked a sacrifice fly.
Right-hander Jameson Taillon allowed two runs on six hits over five innings.
Taillon, typically as efficient and economical as any pitcher on the Pirates staff, watched his pitch count reach 47 in two extended innings. He needed 95 pitches over five innings, walking only one but going to five three-ball counts. Taillon has thrown 1492/3 innings this season, eclipsing his previous career high of 1491/3 innings tossed in the minors in 2013.
The Cardinals jumped on Taillon early, spraying three consecutive singles in the first inning to seize the lead. After Taillon popped Randal Grichuk with an inside fastball to open the second, Grichuk stole second base and scored on Jhonny Peralta's double shot to the opposite field.
Taillon struck out the side on 13 pitches in the third, then worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by convincing Leake, the pitcher, to bounce into an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play.
Right-hander Trevor Williams, a rookie recently promoted from Class AAA Indianapolis, probably dreamed his major league debut would begin differently. But the first pitch he threw in the sixth was lined up the gap by Yadier Molina. Right fielder Adam Frazier, another rookie, overran the route and had the ball bounce off his glove for a two-base error. A single tied the game, 3-3.
Williams settled in and showed off a little smoke, too, amping up to 95 mph in his three innings. With the 55th and final pitch of his debut, Williams whiffed Peralta with a high heater and stranded Molina, who had doubled leading off the eighth, at third base. Molina represented the would-be go-ahead run.
Once Kang blasted his homer off Reyes leading off the eighth, Williams was put in line for the win. To secure his first career victory, though, Williams needed Watson to close things out.
On Wednesday, Watson did his job with ease.
