ST. LOUIS — It’s no secret that the Pirates offense has struggled this season, but it hasn’t been because of the top of the order. When healthy, Adam Frazier, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds have been outstanding, the group charged with carrying a heavy load and routinely responding in a big way.
With the Pirates looking to snap a nine-game losing streak to the Cardinals on Thursday, that group — led by Reynolds’ four-RBI night — drove the bus during an 8-2 victory at Busch Stadium, one that helped Pittsburgh open this series by winning for the fourth time in their past six tries.
The top three hitters in their order combined to go 8 for 12 with two home runs, five RBIs and six runs scored, as the Pirates (26-47) also halted an 11-game road losing skid that was their longest since dropping 14 in a row back in 2010.
A year after some timing issues and an incredibly small sample size brought questions about his productivity, Reynolds has started to make those seem more and more laughable by the day. Remember when there was concern whether he’d bounce back? Yeah, those were funny.
Entering Thursday’s game, Reynolds had the second-best OPS among all National League hitters at 1.052. His three-run homer in the fourth inning Thursday gave him 19 RBIs this month. It was Reynolds’ ninth hit in his past 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
By extending his hitting streak to nine games (17 for 36, .472) and upping his average to .391 (27 for 69) over his past 19, the center fielder finished Thursday’s game slashing .313/.403/.543 on the season, with 13 home runs, 42 RBIs and an OPS of .946.
The victory follows a 3-2 homestead for the Pirates, one where they snapped a 10-game losing skid and actually held their own against the Indians and White Sox, two of the better clubs in the American League.
They also took advantage of a Cardinals team that has really struggled of late. St. Louis has now dropped 17 of 23 and has been held to two or fewer runs in 10 of its past 12, 13 times this month and on an MLB-worst 31 occasions this season.
The Cardinals are just 6-15 in June, and the frustration around St. Louis has been palpable.
“We have to have an aggressive mindset,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said before the game. “We have to be aggressive pitching-wise. We have to stay aggressive offensively, which I think is what we’ve done well in the last five or six games. When we have situations to move guys on the bases, we have to do that. We just have to stay aggressive.”
Ironically, the Pirates created some early separation by not being overly aggressive. They walked seven times against Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez, who added to St. Louis’ MLB-high walk total (328).
Thursday’s victory also would not have been possible without an outstanding start from Chad Kuhl, who wound up giving the Pirates six innings of one-run ball, walking three, striking out two and throwing 54 of his 93 pitches for strikes.
In seven career starts at Busch Stadium, Kuhl now has a 2.93 ERA and has surrendered five earned runs total in his last four starts here.
After a three-start stretch where Kuhl allowed 10 earned runs and five walks over 13 1/3 innings, the right-hander has allowed just two earned runs over his past two starts totaling 12 innings.
Reynolds’ homer actually followed a botched sacrifice bunt attempt for the Pirates, when Michael Perez was thrown out at third. The lost run was forgotten about by the time Reynolds launched a 1-1 changeup that Martinez left middle-middle 404 feet off the sign above the Cardinals bullpen.
It broke open what was a 2-1 game at the time, and two innings later, Frazier connected on a hanging curveball from Wade LeBlanc for his fourth of the season. Prior to 2021, Frazier had three career homers against lefties. He’s matched that total this season.
Reynolds gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead in the first, when he pulled a hanging slider from Martinez into right field. Hayes then scored on Colin Moran’s grounder to second.
After Frazier’s homer gave the Pirates a 6-1 lead in the sixth, they built on it with two more runs in the eighth: a solo homer from Phillip Evans, his first since April 21, and a line-drive single from Moran.
Cardinals rookie Lars Nootbaar, playing his third MLB game, lined an outside sinker up the middle to score left fielder Tyler O’Neill in the second inning. Pitching against his hometown team, Geoff Hartlieb walked two and hit O’Neill in the eight for the Cardinals’ second run.
