PITTSBURGH — The Pirates drawing Adam Wainwright Wednesday was like staggering through the desert tired and thirsty, only to discover a bottle of hot sauce sticking out from the sand. Although Pittsburgh’s offense has hardly been super, St. Louis’ ageless wonder has been their kryptonite.
Wainwright had won his last five starts against the Pirates and was riding a career-best seven-game win streak against them. His last loss came April 3, 2016 — so long ago that only three members of Pittsburgh’s current active roster had made their MLB debuts at that point. There was also that six-inning, one-run, eight-strikeout gem earlier this season, back on June 26.
The only solace might have been Wainwright’s career ERA at PNC Park — 5.47 — but didn’t matter in the least, as the Pirates offense once again remained in neutral. The night after getting one-hit by J.A. Happ, the Pirates failed to score a run against another pitcher pushing 40, dropping a 4-0 decision to Wainwright’s Cardinals at PNC Park.
Pittsburgh has now lost seven straight, nine of 10 and 16 of 21 to fall to 41-73 on the year.
The Pirates mustered just two hits against Wainwright, both coming from Colin Moran. One was an infield single that ticked off Wainwright’s glove.
The veteran righty did not walk a batter and struck out seven during a masterful performance that is one of many for him this season, when he’s been by far the Cardinals’ steadiest pitcher. Wainwright allowed two hits, walked none and needed just 88 pitches navigate nine innings.
Wainwright, whose 19 wins against he Pirates trail only Johnny Cueto (21) among active pitchers, is now 5-1 in his six starts since the All-Star break and lowered his ERA on the year 3.27.
Ahead by a run, St. Louis broke this one open in the sixth, scoring three times off Cody Ponce. It looked like the Pirates right-hander, newly converted to a bullpen role, might actually escape a jam. But with runners on second and third and two outs, shortstop Paul DeJong shot a curveball into the right-center gap, scoring two.
The Pirates intentionally walked second baseman Tommy Edman to get to Wainwright, but the strategy backfired when he smacked a Ponce cutter back up the middle for a 4-0 lead.
Wil Crowe, who’s 13 years younger than Wainwright, faced the minimum through three before the Cardinals pulled in front, 1-0, in the top of the fourth.
First baseman Paul Goldschmidt singled and moved to second when Crowe walked third baseman Nolan Arenado. Catcher Yadier Molina followed by lining a Crowe slider into left field for a hit, although a solid defensive play from the Pirates ensured that was all St. Louis would get.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, who played the part of cutoff man, smartly snagged Anthony Alford’s throw from left when he saw Arenado inexplicably trying to advance to third.
Hayes cut the throw, and Hoy Park chased Arenado back to second before giving up the ball to Rodolfo Castro.
The Cardinals threatened in the fifth, loading the bases after Alford made a fabulous, diving catch in left to open the inning. Manager Derek Shelton yanked Crowe following his third walk of the night — to right fielder Dylan Carlson with two outs.
Nick Mears entered and got Goldschmidt to ground out sharply to second, the Cardinals leaving the bases loaded.
Wednesday wasn’t Crowe’s best work, but it did represent a step forward from his last time out, when he coughed up seven runs (three earned) on eight hits in four innings last Thursday in Cincinnati.
Before the game, a talking point with Shelton was Crowe’s tempo, how when he’s struggled this season, things have ground to a halt. Shelton and pitching coach Oscar Marin have been working with Crowe to keep his tempo up and not let the results of the game get him out of his rhythm.
“Young pitchers can tend to think too much between pitches,” Shelton said. “They’re over-analyzing what they’re going to do and how they’re going to do it. When that comes into play, the pace comes to a standstill. There are guys throughout their career, they’ve made a living on being slow. If you look at the Boston teams in the late 2000s, those guys were the masters of it. I know that because I was in Tampa.
“With some guys, you want to slow down. With other guys, you want their tempo to pick up because their execution of pitches works better. With Wil, we just want to make sure that stays at a more rapid pace.”
Crowe worked fast early on when he was getting outs. His pace slowed down when the Cardinals started to learn what he had, and that’s been a recurring problem for Crowe this season; opposing hitters have a 1.009 OPS against him the third time through.
