“The determination then will be whether or how soon it'll be multiple innings or back-to-back or some combination,'' continued Shildt, who said Martinez could stay with Memphis or possibly move to Springfield and could be back with the Cardinals sometime during the next homestand, which begins May 21 against the Kansas City Royals. “He's very conscientious and continues to understand how to prepare and how to use what he has relative to what he's seeing as far as the hitter,'' Shildt said. “He's got ability and he's got a fastball that has a life to it, that plays up with spin rates and so forth. And he's got a slider that he can command. So when you command a pitch, you can do a couple of different things with it _ you can throw for a strike and then you can throw it to expand (the strike zone).<doc-sep>The Cardinals spotted the Pittsburgh Pirates a three-run lead in the first inning Sunday but roared back for a total of six runs in the first and second. At that point, the Cardinals stopped scoring. Pittsburgh didn’t, erupting for five runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to pull out a 10-6 win, their third in succession in the finale of a four-game series. A record paid crowd of 48,555 at the newest Busch Stadium enjoyed two-run homers by Paul Goldschmidt in the first and Jose Martinez in the second and nearly saw another Martinez homer in the ninth but left fielder Bryan Reynolds pulled it back. It saw Cardinals starter Dakota Hudson rebound from a long, unproductive first inning to make it through the next five innings unscathed. But righthander John Brebbia, all by untouchable this season with an 0.83 earned run average, surrendered a three-run, game-tying homer to Josh Bell, who had four hits, in the five-run Pittsburgh seventh after reliever Tyler Webb had walked and hit the first two batters. The winning hit was a two-run pinch double by Adam Frazier off Brebbia after the Cardinals all but intentionally walked pinch hitter Melky Cabrera. Manager Mike Shildt had gone to righthander Brebbia to face the switch hitting Bell even though Bell had had seven of his nine home runs hitting lefthanded.<doc-sep>ST. LOUIS, MO - MAY 11: Starting pitcher Jordan Lyles #31 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches in the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on May 11, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas /Getty Images) St. Louis Cardinals 1 Pittsburgh Pirates 2 The Pittsburgh Pirates win their second straight against the Cardinals by the score of 2-1. They now lead the series 2-1 with the finale tomorrow at 2:15 pm ET. The start of Saturday’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals was scheduled for 2:15 pm ET. Well, a rain delay that last longer than the actual game pushed the start time back to 5:10 PM. When the rain cleared out and baseball was played, the Pirates picked up a 2-1 victory over the Red Birds. This was the team’s second 2-1 victory on as many days over their divisional rivals. With the win, the Pirates are now 7-3 in their last 10 games and 19-17 overall on the season. This includes a 3-2 mark through the first 5 games of a vital 13 games in 13 days stretch. When the game started, Jordan Lyles turned in a fantastic start after laboring through the 1st inning with 30 pitches. Pitch count hasn’t been kind to Pirates starters in the 1st inning as of late. Lyles did settle down after that as he finished with 3 walks and 1 earned run allowed on only one hit by the Cards. It was a nice bounce back from a long 1st inning in similar fashion to Trevor Williams in last night’s victory. The bats weren’t particularly scorching, but the 2 lone runs given up by Miles Mikolas was enough to lock it down for the Buccos. In the top of the 4th inning, Gregory Polanco drove a triple into the gap scoring Starling Marte. Josh Bell followed that up by singling him in. Overall, the Pirates were only able to scratch out 4 hits in this contest. The bats are going to need to heat up sooner rather than later, as the pitching isn’t going to be able to outperform the opponent every given day. Bell, Polanco, and Marte have been bright spots in this lineup. Clint Hurdle went to the 7th inning in the bullpen. He started out by handing the ball to Richard Rodriguez. As Pirate fans held their breath, Rodriguez retired the two batters he faced to keep the score at 2-1. Hurdle then did something he does not do nearly often enough with his bullpen, he played match ups! With switch hitter Dexter Fowler and lefty Kolten Wong looming, Hurdle went to lefty Francisco Liriano. The veteran lefty needed just one pitch to get Fowler to ground out to end the inning. While Rodriguez has struggled with the long ball this season, there are signs he is getting back on track. His swing-and-miss rate has been better the past month, and, after Saturday’s outing, he has allowed just 5 earned runs in his last 15 2/3 innings pitched. A pair of walks got Kyle Crick into trouble in the 8th inning, but he got Marcell Ozuna to ground out with the bases loaded to end the inning. This came after Crick threw a wild pitch on a 3-0 pitch to Paul DeJong with two outs and runners on the corners. The Bucs got a luck bounce when the ball hit off the back stop, but catcher Elias Diaz also made a great play to get to the ball quickly and fire to Crick covering the plate to keep Wong at third base. Felipe Vazquez continued to dominate in the 9th. He retired the Cardinals in order, ending the game. Remarkably, 67% of the Pirates games this season have been decided by 2 runs or less. This makes playing strong defense and having a shut down bullpen vital. While the team still has the occasional defensive hiccup, having a bullpen trio of Liriano, Crick, and Vazquez helps a good bit. This is why it’s crucial that Rodriguez get back on track, and Keone Kela return from his injury pitching the way he did last season. The Pirates will send southpaw Steven Brault to the mound tomorrow to oppose Dakota Hudson. Brault had good success in his last start against the Texas Rangers. But, he looks to go deeper into the ballgame tomorrow. It looks as if both him and Nick Kingham receive at least one more start as Chris Archer will be ready to come back into the rotation late next week. It will be interesting to see which guy stays in the rotation once Archer is back. Sunday’s first pitch from Busch Stadium is scheduled for 2:15 PM.<doc-sep>
Fresh off a strong outing from the pitching staff that held the Cardinals to one run after a 17-run outburst on Friday, the Pirates are primed to take the series lead this afternoon at Busch Stadium. Jordan Lyles will look to keep the Cardinals offense stagnant as he squares off with Miles Mikolas. Lyles has had trouble with the current Cardinals roster. They post a .352 batting average (.323 xBA) against him yet with an average exit velocity of just 81.7 MPH. After a terrible outing against the Diamondbacks (8 hits, 2 HR in 5 IP) on the 24th of April, Lyles has been improving. He had some control problems against the Rangers, walking four batters and allowing three hits in four innings pitched, but also had five strikeouts and gave up only two earned runs. Lyles’ last outing against Oakland saw some more control issues (1-1 K/BB-ratio) but it ended up being a good start. Through 6.2 innings pitched, he allowed just one run with three strikeouts and five hits. A slow-motion, up close spin & tilt contrast on @Pirates Jordan Lyles' four-seam fastball and changeup. #Pirates 92MPH four-seam: ~200-degree axis 85MPH changeup: ~245-degree axis pic.twitter.com/nCi9QZJ2G7 — Michael Augustine (@AugustineMLB) May 5, 2019 Lyles is going to need to harness his command to keep the Pirates in the game. Pittsburgh has scored six runs in this series and may need as many to win today. Mikolas fares quite a bit better against the Buccos in his career. He’s held the current lineup to a .264 batting average with a FIP of 3.16 and a 18.3% K-rate. The last two starts for Mikolas have been really good, especially his last outing against the Phillies. He surrendered three hits with no earned runs and struck out five hitters without a walk. If he has that kind of effectiveness today, the Pirates are going to need a stellar outing from Lyles. Stats of Interest -Paul DeJong and Jose Martinez both hit Lyles very well (.327 and .340, respectively). Marcel Ozuna has 11 career home runs and Paul Goldschmidt has 9 against Lyles. Matt Carpenter (.207) and Kolten Wong (.244) struggle. -Gregory Polanco (.308), Josh Bell (9 HR, 28 RBIs), and Brian Reynolds (.348) have had success hitting against Mikolas. Adam Frazier (.258) and Starling Marte (.232), not so much A weather delay is expected for several hours. Once the rain gives in (about 7PM EST), temperatures will be in the high 40’s with light winds out to left field.