PITTSBURGH _ In the past few seasons, September has been a time for the Pirates to position themselves for the playoffs _ or at least a possible postseason run. This year is different: The Pirates were out of contention by August, so September has been less of a chase for October than a chance to spoil others' postseason hopes and audition the team's young talent for 2018.
That was evident Sunday afternoon, when the Pirates started five rookies, most of whom had spent the season in the minors, and leaned on others from the bullpen and the bench. Those efforts were rewarded in the Pirates' 4-1 victory over the wild-card-hungry St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park, a game in which Chris Bostick scored two runs, Jordan Luplow homered and Edgar Santana pitched a perfect inning in relief.
"It's fun to, I guess, at this point play spoiler," starter Jameson Taillon said. "We're still playing for pride; we're all professionals. We want to go out there and put our best on the line. But it's fun playing against a team that's playing for something. It kind of makes you raise your stakes a little bit."
The Pirates won two of three against the Cardinals and finished their season series at 8-11. After their last Sunday home game of the season, the Pirates (71-85) have a day off Monday before hosting the Baltimore Orioles for their final series at PNC Park this season.
"Our pitching staff did a great job today, and our offense was clicking today," Luplow said, "so it was fun."
The game featured a series of bizarre plays on the base paths. In the first inning, starter John Gant did not catch a routine pop fly in the infield, but Starling Marte _ initially attempting to steal and then turning back to first _ was thrown out at second. Then, with the bases loaded in the third, Jose Osuna lifted a fly ball to left field. It was short, but Bostick, who played second base and hit leadoff, managed to score from third. In the meantime, Andrew McCutchen tried to advance but was tagged out in a rundown between first and second _ the official score, 1-3-4-3-6.
Taillon (8-7) pitched five innings, struck out six, walked one, scattered four hits and allowed the one run on a homer from Matt Carpenter. On a sunny, 84-degree day, Taillon said he went through a couple of different jerseys and undershirts and used a fan in the tunnel to handle the heat.
"He had good stuff today," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "The command was a little off but he made pitches at crunch time throughout the game. His competitive fire was burning."
Still, his biggest challenge was staying cool during his 34-pitch fifth inning. After striking out Stephen Piscotty, he allowed singles to Carson Kelly and pinch hitter Aledmys Diaz. Then, he struck out Carpenter and Tommy Pham, the Nos. 1 and 2 batters in the lineup, to get out of the jam, reaching back for 97-mph fastballs to do so.
"We're in pretty good shape at this point in the season," Taillon said. "I'm built up to throw a lot of pitches, but when it's hot...I felt like I was still making good pitches but it kind of wore me out."
The Pirates' young offense provided much of the support for Taillon. Bostick was on first when Marte lifted his seventh home run of the season off Seung Hwan Oh. Luplow tripled and homered to left. The Pirates tagged Gant, a 25-year-old right-hander who was making his first start of the season, for one run in three innings, doing most of their damage to the Cardinals bullpen.
"We've seen a nice battle in the box since he's been here, as far as seeing pitches, getting the swing off, so we're hoping to get him some more action," Hurdle said of Bostick. "I figure if I want to see him play, why not lead him off? Might be an extra at-bat come his way, and he managed all his at-bats today."
The Pirates' bullpen also held firm: Santana pitched a clean sixth, and George Kontos worked out of trouble in the seventh after Daniel Hudson and Dan Runzler couldn't get out of the inning. Felipe Rivero struck out two in a clean ninth, four nights after blowing a save against the Milwaukee Brewers.
