PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It had been five years since the Pirates did what they did on Sunday. The Bucs beat St. Louis 2-1, sweeping the Cardinals for the first time at PNC Park since 2018 with David Bednar saving a fourth straight win.
“I think they have a very good team, let's face it,” said starter Rich Hill.
“That's a good lineup, and they've been perennially very, very good and I think that that's something to obviously take stock of. We've had meetings in here and we talk about it and reinforce it and just continue to go out there and give that effort every single night and understand that [if] we continue to put in the work, it'll start the show every night on the field."
“It’s a huge series,” said Pirates catcher Austin Hedges. “Anytime you are in the division, you want to win those games. Our first goal of the season is to win the division and then to make a playoff run. That’s a good team over there, regardless of their record, that’s a really good team. To win three in a row against any team is tough, but against them is pretty sweet.”
Since falling below .500 for the first time since the start of the season, the Pirates have won five straight games. They’ve also won seven in a row against the National League Central with the last place A’s at PNC Park for the next three games.
“I think it sends a message to our group,” Shelton said. “You just have to continue to go. We scored two in the first, and I actually thought we swung the bats today the best we did in the three games. We hit a ton of balls hard. We didn’t add on at times. But we swung the bats well. I think the message is more to our group that when you go out and play well, you’re gonna give yourselves a really good chance to win.”
Often PNC Park welcomes thousands of Cardinals fans for weekend series with St. Louis often succeeding in those matchups. Over the last three seasons, the Cardinals had 31 wins over the Bucs.
"It's huge, they're a division rival and you know, we started the month off strong and now we're just going to try and keep it rolling," Bednar said.
Top of the Hill
Rich Hill got a mostly standing ovation after leaving the game in the seventh inning, allowing one run on four hits. It was the first win for Hill since May 17 and fifth of the season for the 43-year-old lefty. Hill struck out six and walked three in 6.2 innings.
“It's the feeling of how the ball's coming out of my hand and executing pitches,” Hill said. “I think, a couple of those innings where you get the leadoff guy on, I can feel where I'm just missing those curveballs and leaking a little bit on them and then making that adjustment for the next batter. I think that was the case and then being able to execute pitches to be able to put us in a good position to get out of some innings where we had traffic on the bases."
“If you don’t treat his fastball like it’s 98-99, you aren’t going to hit it,” Hedges said. “It’s the hardest 88 mile-an-hour fastball I’ve ever seen. When I used to face him in LA, the metrics say he has as good of stuff as he’s had in his career especially with the addition of the cutter.”
“It was huge,” Shelton said. “That’s what veteran starters do. He’s very aware of how we used our bullpen (Saturday). He went out and executed pitches. Was able to mix and match against a right-handed lineup with the exception of Gorman, who hits left-handers. He kept ‘em off-balance the entire day. He made one bad pitch, a bad cutter that turned into a slider. Other than that, I thought he was outstanding.
Shelton added he was the perfect starter to handle a 11:35 start time considering they have three rookies in their rotation.
Bednar work
A third straight day of David Bednar pitching and closing. Shelton said before he even threw Sunday morning, he went into Shelton’s office and said he was good for today. Shelton said the coaches watched him throw and he felt comfortable putting him in.
"Felt good, felt prepared going into it and I told Shelty I felt good and he trusted me to go out there for a third day," Bednar said. "Just get out, throw and get my treatment in and get all the activation, just like any other day."
"In my opinion, he's one of the best,” Hill said of Bednar. “I'd put him up there with any of the guys that I've played with, who arguably could be and probably will be a hall of famers.”
For the season, Bednar is 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA, 30 strikeouts in 24 innings with a 0.75 WHIP. He is also 13 of 14 in save opportunities, including saving the last four Pirates wins.
Ji Hwan Bae drove in the only runs with a two-out single in the first inning. It was the fifth time in the last 11 games that Bae had multiple hits raising his average to .274.
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2,000 Watch
Andrew McCutchen given the day off on Sunday, he remains three hits short of 2,000 for his career. There are a couple of former Pirates next in range for McCutchen-Bill Madlock with 2,008 hits, Bobby Bonilla with 2,010 and Bill Mazeroski with 2,016.
Up Next
Pirates open a three-game series hosting Oakland with 5’11”, 180-pound LHP JP Sears (0-3, 4.37 ERA) who was drafted by Seattle in the 11th round in 2017 and last year pitched with the Yankees and A’s against RHP Johan Oviedo (3-4, 4.50 ERA) with the North Shore Tavern Leadoff Show with Dan Zangrilli at 6p with first-pitch on 93.7 The Fan at 7:05p.
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