PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Pirates fall to Cardinals 6-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Pittsburgh had a great opportunity to take control of the game early as they had the bases loaded with nobody out, but only plated one run in the inning. They made Miles Mikolas throw 42 pitches in the first inning but couldn’t get the knockout punch.
“We kind of let them off the hook,” said Manager Derek Shelton. “The fact we didn’t capitalize with more runs early definitely affected us.”
Paul DeJong gave St. Louis the lead on a two-run home run off Mitch Keller in the bottom of the third inning to make it 4-2 Cardinals.
Former Pirate Corey Dickerson singled home a run in the fifth and Nolan Arenado doubled home a run in the sixth inning for the Cards.
Diego Castillo picked up his first Major League hit in the seventh inning when he pinched hit for Josh VanMeter.
“I was waiting for just a base hit,” said Castillo. “But a double? It’s amazing. The best moment of my life.”
Mitch Keller pitched four innings striking out four hitters, gave up six hits, four earned runs, and walked two. Roansy Contreras made his 2022 debut out of the bullpen in the fifth inning. He gave up two earned runs in his appearance.
Yoshi Tsugo had two hits and two RBIs. Ke’Bryan Hayes returned to the lineup after Thursday’s injury and went two-for-four with a run scored.
The Pirates look for win number one tomorrow as Bryse Wilson takes the mound against Steven Matz. First pitch is at 2:15.