PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Jose Martinez's home run to lead-off the 5th inning lifted the St. Louis Cardinals over the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 Tuesday night in game two of this four game series at PNC Park.
The Pirates jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the 1st inning as Adam Frazier led the inning off with a single, Bryan Reynolds walked and Starling Marte put one into the bullpen for a 3-run home run and it looked like the Pirates were getting ready to have a big night on offense.
After that home run, however, the Cardinals' pitchers locked it down and even when the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth, Dakota Hudson got Josh Bell to strikeout and Colin Moran to ground into a double play to end the threat and the inning.
After giving up the go ahead home run to the Philadelphia Phillies in extra innings Sunday, pitcher Chris Stratton appeared in a game for the first time since then Tuesday night and he pitched 3 scoreless innings, struck out 4 and kept the Pirates in the game for the final 3 innings and made sure they had a chance at least to comeback to tie and try to take the lead.