PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - St. Louis Cardinals survive the Pittsburgh Pirates threat in the bottom of the 10th inning to win game one of the series 6-5 Monday night at PNC Park.
Pirates Pitcher Clay Holmes gave up the go ahead Grand Slam to Paul Goldschmidt in the Top of the 10th that gave the Cardinals a 6-2 lead and things looked bleak for the Pirates heading to the bottom half of the inning.
But, one thing that can be said about this season's Pirates team is that they don't give up when they are down late.
Starling Marte led off the bottom of the 10th with a Double, Josh Bell brought home Marte with an RBI Double and Jung Ho Kang hits a 2-run home run out to left field and the Cardinals lead was down to 6-5 with no outs in the inning.
Corey Dickerson than singled to right field and Kevin Newman reached on an error by the shortstop and that was followed by a bunt by Elias Diaz that Cardinals Pitcher Carlos Martinez fielded and got Dickerson out at third for the first out of the inning.
Jacob Stallings, pinch hitting for Luis Escobar, came to plate and singled to right field and it took a strong throw to the plate to get Newman who was called out on the play and on review the call stood as called on the field.
This Pirates team went into the break feeling pretty good about themselves, but early on here coming out of the break they just haven't been able to put together complete games consistently enough.