Oneil Cruz draws bases-loaded walk as Pirates rally past Cardinals for walk-off win
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The Pittsburgh Pirates couldn’t evade history when it came to Albert Pujols hitting another home run at PNC Park but managed to elude their 100th loss by beating the St. Louis Cardinals in true walk-off fashion.
Yes, they drew four consective walks.
Even Oneil Cruz stared in disbelief when JoJo Romero’s fourth consecutive pitch for a ball drove in the winning run, rallying the Pirates to a 3-2 walk-off win over the NL Central champions Monday night before an announced crowd of 12,702 at PNC Park.
The ending was so stunning that when Cruz didn’t hear a call, he turned to home plate umpire Jerry Meals to see if he had really worked a walk.
“That fourth ball was kind of weird because I didn’t hear the umpire at all make any calls,” Cruz said through translator Mike Gonzalez. “I just froze up. I looked back and I don’t see him react and I ended up asking him, ‘Is that a ball or not?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.’ That’s when I ran to first.”
Cruz was chased down the first base line and into shallow right field by a swarm of his teammates, who tried to give him a Gatorade shower but couldn’t catch the speedy 6-foot-7 rookie.
“No, I had to get away from that. That water was too cold,” Cruz said, with a smile. “I think that water made me run a little faster.”
The spectacle surrounding Pujols overshadowed much of the game.
When Pujols lined a Mitch Keller curveball over the fence in the left for a two-run homer to break a scoreless tie in the sixth inning, it marked another record-setting moment in a fitting farewell campaign for the St. Louis slugger.
The Pirates rallied back behind a Bryan Reynolds RBI double in the sixth and Jack Suwinski’s solo homer in the eighth to set the stage for an improbable ending.
Ke’Bryan Hayes drew a four-pitch walk against Giovanny Gallegos to lead off the ninth, then recorded his 20th stolen base to put the winning run in scoring position. Gallegos then walked Miguel Andujar and Rodolfo Castro on full counts to load the bases for Cruz.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton was particularly impressed by the plate appearance from the switch-hitting Castro: “Talk about a kid that’s come a long way against right-handed pitching.”
The Cardinals turned to the left-handed Romero to face Cruz, who was batting .168 against lefties, was 0 for 3 in the game and went down looking at a called third strike in his previous at-bat.
“In that situation, in that at-bat, my mindset was just to make sure I got a good pitch in the zone that I could hit further back,” Cruz said. “Anything I could get in the air to bring in that winning run.”
Instead, Romero threw four consecutive balls.
Cruz couldn’t have been blamed for taking a swing, given the inspiration from watching his Dominican hero Pujols homer for the seventh time against the Pirates this season.
Pujols was averaging a home run once in every three games at PNC Park, so chances were high that the Cardinals star would go deep at least once in the final three games against the Pirates.
With his 703rd career homer, Pujols broke a tie with Babe Ruth to take sole possession of second place all-time with 2,216 RBIs, behind Henry Aaron (2,297). Pujols tied Aaron for the second-most home runs on the road with his 370th, behind only Barry Bonds (383).
Pujols, who plans to retire after this, his 22nd season, entered his final regular-season series with 34 home runs in 100 career games at PNC Park. His 35th homer on the North Shore is more than any member of the Pirates’ active roster, as Reynolds has 34 career homers at home.
It also marked the second time he’s homered in back-to-back games against the Pirates; Pujols hit Nos. 696 and 697 in his last visit on Sept. 10-11.
Lars Nootbaar led off the fourth inning with a double off the Clemente Wall and Paul Goldschmidt worked a full-count walk against Keller to put runners on first and second with no outs.
Pujols grounded out to third, advancing both runners. Corey Dickerson hit a comebacker to Keller, who threw home to catcher Jason Delay, who chased Nootbaar toward third before tagging him out. With runners on the corners, Keller struck out Juan Yepez on three pitches.
Keller got into more trouble in the fifth, walking Dylan Carlson and giving up a single to Andrew Knizner before striking out Paul DeJong. Brendan Donovan grounded to short, where Kevin Newman made a quick throw to second but Castro dropped the ball. Knizner, however, was called out for running out of the basepath. Keller then got Nootbaar to fly out to right to escape unscathed.
The sixth was another story.
Goldschmidt singled to start, and Pujols worked a 2-2 count before sending a hanging curveball 361 feet to the left field corner for his 24th homer this season and a 2-0 lead. Pujols passed Barry Bonds for the most go-ahead homers in MLB since 1961, with 263.
“I knew out of the hand I was either going to hit him, or he’s going to hit this over the fence – and he hit it over the fence,” Keller said. “Nothing I can do about it now. … If I was going give one up, I’d rather give it up to him than anybody else.”
After giving up back-to-back singles to Dickerson and Yepez, Keller was done. On the day he was voted winner of the Steve Blass Award as the team’s top pitcher by members of the Pittsburgh chapter of the BBWAA, Keller allowed two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five over five innings in his final start of the season.
“Overall, I thought Mitch did a nice job,” Shelton said. “It’s a good cap to a really good season. I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of one player (because he had a) tough start to it, made an adjustment to his pitch mix, made an adjustment to his demeanor and how he goes after people. Really positive year for Mitch.”
The Pirates cut it to 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, when Jason Delay hit a leadoff double and scored on a double to the left-center gap by Reynolds.
The Cardinals pinch hit for Goldschmidt and Pujols in the seventh, a decision that drew boos from a pro-Cardinals crowd seated along the first base line.
Suwinski tied the game at 2-2 in the eighth by smashing Andre Pallante’s 2-2 fastball 395 feet to right for his 19th homer, Suwinski’s 16th this season at PNC Park.
Yohan Ramirez retired the side in the ninth, celebrating as he walked off the mound after getting Nootbaar looking at a called third strike. That was something the Cardinals couldn’t accomplish in the final frame.
“I don’t care how we get them, just as long as we get them,” Shelton said. “They were extremely resilient.”