Young Pirates rally for comeback, beat Cardinals in season finale to finish 62-100
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Where Derek Shelton has prided his positivity in the face of the absurdity and adversity the Pittsburgh Pirates have produced in his three years as manager, he finally voiced his frustration.
Before the season finale, Shelton vented that the 100th loss of the season stuck with him. Shelton called it a game they should have won, admitted to being ticked off and hoped the message resonated with the clubhouse.
“To say that it doesn’t get to me, yeah, it gets to me,” Shelton said. “I want to win every night. I’m a competitor. And our coaches are, too, and our players are the same way.”
So Shelton was pleased to see that the Pirates stuck their finish, ending their fourth consecutive losing season with a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals before an announced 15,319 on Wednesday afternoon at PNC Park.
“We played well this entire series,” Shelton said, “so really proud of how our guys finished.”
The Pirates won two of the three games in the final homestand against the NL Central champions, with the only defeat an 8-7 loss in 10 innings Tuesday night that clinched back-to-back 100-loss seasons.
Where they blew a four-run lead in that game, the Pirates rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Cardinals and leave PNC Park on a victorious note amid the belief better days are ahead.
“It’s better than a loss,” said Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman, who had an RBI single in the four-run fourth inning. “The 100 is just a number, and we don’t really focus on it too much. The strides we made here towards the end are really good things to build going into the offseason.”
The Pirates (62-100) made only a one-game improvement in the win-loss column from last season and finished tied with the Cincinnati Reds for last place in NL Central standings. Though the teams had identical records, the Pirates won 12 of 19 games against the Reds this season.
Shelton focused on the finish, given a lineup that featured 23-year-olds Rodolfo Castro, Oneil Cruz, Jack Suwinski, Cal Mitchell, Ji Hwan Bae and 24-year-olds Diego Castillo and starting pitcher Johan Oviedo provided a peak into a promising future.
When asked how far the Pirates have come, Shelton framed the finish as a sign that progress is “really starting to show” in what has been a slow and sometimes painful rebuilding process.
“That’s a good question. I think we’re closer,” Shelton said. “To say how far away we are right now, I think it’s going to matter on what we do into the offseason. But I think we’re in good shape.”
Shelton has remained steadfast all season in his belief that, for all of the misadventures and mishaps made by his young club, effort has never been an issue. The Pirates proved him right by rallying for the win.
The Cardinals started by scoring two runs in the first inning against Oviedo, acquired in August in the trade that sent left-handed starter Jose Quintana and righty reliever Chris Stratton to St. Louis.
Lars Nootbaar hit a leadoff double to left-center, then scored on Tommy Edman’s single to right to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead before Oviedo could blink. After striking out Nolan Arenado, Oviedo got Corey Dickerson to hit a grounder to first base, but the ball rolled under Castillo’s glove to score Edman from second and make it 2-0.
The Cardinals increased their lead to 3-0 when Edman doubled and scored on an Arenado single. The Pirates answered when Bae, hit by a pitch by Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore, scored on Castro’s single to right to cut it to 3-1.
Miguel Andujar led off the fourth with a line drive to the North Side Notch in left-center, stretching it into a triple when Ben DeLuzio stumbled at the warning track. Andujar scored on a wild pitch by Liberatore, cutting the Cardinals’ lead to 3-2.
Cruz drew a walk, then sped around the bases to score from first on Castillo’s double to the left-center gap to tie the score at 3-3. After Suwinski walked, Jason Delay’s sacrifice moved both runners into scoring position. Bae grounded out to first to score Castillo for the lead, and Newman singled to left to drive in Suwinski to make it 5-3.
The Pirates had another chance to score when Castillo doubled to start the sixth and advanced to third on Suwinski’s groundout to second. But Castillo was thrown out at home when Delay grounded to short and Edman’s throw beat Castillo’s slide to the plate.
The Pirates bullpen didn’t allow another run in five innings of relief, with Yohan Ramirez earning his first save for the Pirates by getting DeJong to line out to first for a game-ending double play.
In an on-field interview with Robby Incmikoski of AT&T SportsNet, an emotional Shelton thanked the fans for their support and promised “a lot of good things to come here.” In the postgame news conference, Shelton reinforced that message.
“It’s important to emphasize that we’ve got a good, young group here,” Shelton said. “We have more coming, which is important. That’s really important: There’s more guys coming. The group we have here got a ton of opportunity to play at the major-league level this year, which you can’t imitate anywhere.”