Andrew McCutchen hits 299th career homer as Pirates beat Adam Wainwright, Cardinals

Adam Wainwright has made a career of having his way against the Pittsburgh Pirates, so it was no surprise that the St. Louis Cardinals 41-year-old right-hander pitched three perfect innings to start.

That the Pirates batted around the order in a five-run fourth inning was another story, a twist of an ending to what could be the final chapter of Wainwright’s 18-year career.

Highlighted by Andrew McCutchen’s 299th career home run, the Pirates pulled away for a 6-3 win Tuesday night before 11,823 at PNC Park to stay ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central standings.

The homer was McCutchen’s second in four games after going without one from June 30-Aug. 19 and leaves him one shy of becoming the 12th active player to reach the 300-home run milestone. He had a deep fly out to the warning track against the Clemente Wall in the seventh.

The 36-year-old designated hitter already accomplished career milestones by recording his 1,000th walk, 2,000th hit and 400th double this season. Now, he has one more homer to go.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” McCutchen said, bringing up June 30 twice between laughs. “Couldn’t hit a home run for a very long time. That homestand, I needed one hit to get 2,000, it took me 10 games. I don’t wanna talk about it. We’ll talk about it whenever it happens.”

Wainwright (3-9) took the loss after allowing six runs on seven hits and one walk in 4⅔ innings. This start came two years to the day that he tossed a two-hit shutuout with nine strikeouts and no walks over eight innings in a 4-0 win, his ninth consecutive victory over the Pirates.

Wainwright entered with a 23-8 career record and 3.72 ERA in 50 games (44 starts) against the Pirates, including 11-4 in 24 appearances (20 starts) at PNC Park. He didn’t allow a baserunner until Ji Hwan Bae drew a leadoff walk in the fourth. Bae advanced to second on a Bryan Reynolds groundout to short, then scored on Connor Joe’s single to left to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

“With Wainwright, obviously, the ability to spin the breaking ball is elite and it’s been elite for a lot of years,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He did a good job manipulating it the first time through. His curveball’s nothing you can prepare for until you see it. I think that’s why guys who see it for the first time have issue with it. We had some issues with it. Once we got the timing of it down, we were able to break through a little bit.”

A day after his older brother Joshua homered and had five RBIs for the Pirates in an 11-1 win, Cardinals center fielder Richie Palacios led off the fifth by hitting his first carer homer in sending Johan Oviedo’s 2-1 fastball 406 feet to right to tie the game at 1-1.

The Pirates batted around the order in the five-run fifth, loading the bases on successive singles by Vinny Capra, Alfonso Rivas and Alika Williams on a bunt at the bottom of the order. With two outs, Reynolds hit a two-run double off the Clemente Wall in right field for a 3-1 lead.

McCutchen followed by driving Wainwright’s 1-1 sinker over the middle 405 feet to left field for a two-run homer that gave the Pirates a 5-1 lead, winning the battle after striking out in the fourth.

“I have nothing but respect for that guy. He’s done it longer than I have,” said McCutchen, in his 15th season. “He’s a competitor. He’s gonna compete every single time. No matter how many times we faced each other, he’s been trying to give me his best stuff, I’m gonna try and return the favor as well. He got me once, I got him once. Evened out.”

After Joe doubled to drive in McCutchen to make it 6-1, the Cardinals pulled Wainwright.

Oviedo (7-13), acquired from the Cardinals in a 2022 trade deadline deal involving Jose Quintana and Chris Stratton, held his former team to one run on four hits and one walk while striking out five in five innings.

“It feels amazing. I’m not going to lie: I’m happy about it,” Oviedo said. “But that’s the mentality for every game: Just give the team a chance to win. … I always want to win. It doesn’t matter the team that I’m facing, but it’s good to have a win.”

The Cardinals tried to rally, as Willson Contreras doubled off Dauri Moreta to score Paul Goldschmidt to cut it to 6-2 in the sixth.

Jordan Walker led off the seventh with a single and advanced to second on Masyn Winn’s grounder to second. Winn was called safe, but the Pirates challenged the call and got it overturned, which might have saved a run when Alec Burleson singled to left to score Walker to cut it to 6-3 and Goldschmidt followed with a single to right.

Arenado drew a walk to load the bases, but Colin Holderman got Contreras swinging at an elevated sinker to escape the jam. Contreras took exception with a called strike on a 1-1 sinker below the zone and was animated in arguing the call with home plate umpire Brennan Miller, who ejected both the Cardinals catcher and manager Oli Marmol.

Walker was ejected by Miller after striking out in the eighth. David Bednar pitched the ninth to earn his 27th save.

The Pirates’ spotlight will shine on McCutchen for the remainder of the seven-game homestand as he chases No. 300.

“I think it’s cool anytime you get to specific milestones, especially from what Cutch means to this team, this organization and this city,” Shelton said. “Once you get a little closer to it, it’s exciting. It’s going to be exciting every at-bat now because he’s one home run away from a really cool milestone.”