Cardinals jump on Pirates early to claim victory

The way was cleared for the Pittsburgh Pirates to threaten and perhaps even defeat the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Starting pitcher J.T. Brubaker settled down after allowing five runs in the first three innings and the bullpen threw 2⅓ innings worth of zeroes at the Cardinals.

Then, Gregory Polanco led off the ninth with a walk, and the Pirates needed only one hit to bring the potential tying run to the plate.

The rally never materialized, however. The bottom portion of the lineup — Erik Gonzalez, Ben Gamel and Michael Perez — went down in order (fly ball, ground ball, fly ball) and the Pirates (17-23) were forced to settle for a 5-2 defeat at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals (24-18) remained in the first place in the National League Central.

It was not the strongest lineup manager Derek Shelton could have fielded, with Colin Moran, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jacob Stallings out with injuries. Gonzalez, Gamel and Perez left the field with a combined batting averge of .178 (34 of 191).

Overall, the offense continued to struggle, going down in order in four of nine innings. The Pirates have scored a total of nine runs in six of past eight games.

“You definitely get tired of coming up short,” said Kevin Newman, who had two of the Pirates’ six hits and raised his average to .213.

Brubaker gave up more runs (five) and hits (eight) than in any game this season, but he pitched well after the third inning and two outs into the sixth. Brubaker fell to 3-3 while his ERA went from 2.58 to 3.27, but manager Derek Shelton said it was a teaching moment for his young starter.

“We talk about moments of younger players getting better,” Shelton said. “This is the first time this year he’s had any adversity, and we saw him step up. He bounced back, found the command of his fastball, executed. Very easily, that could have been a three-inning start for him if he doesn’t execute pitches.

“Early on, the slider wasn’t located very well, the fastball wasn’t located very well, either. Second and third time through (the order), he really started to command the baseball.”

The Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado hit a two-run homer in the first inning, his 10th of the season and fourth in the past four games.

“It’s a tip-your-cap pitch,” Brubaker said. “I felt like I made a good pitch. The guy’s hot right now.

“I was a little hot. You make a pitch. He hits it out, but then you realize it’s baseball. Anything can happen. After that, it flipped the switch. I wasn’t using my fastball much. Learning point for me.”

“It wasn’t a terrible pitch,” Shelton said, “but you have to execute really good pitches to Nolan because he’s done a nice job capitalizing on mistakes his entire career. It caught too much of the plate.”

Brubaker allowed two runs in the second inning, but he should have escaped without allowing even one.

A two-out popup by Tommy Edman that measured only 66.4 mph off the bat dropped into shallow left field and scored Harrison Bader and Edmundo Sosa. The Pirates’ defensive shift made it difficult for anyone to catch the ball with Newman, the shortstop, standing to the right of second base and third baseman Gonzalez pulled in toward home plate. Gonzalez’s only hope was a running, over-the-shoulder catch, and he didn’t miss it by much.

“It would have been phenomenal. They hit the ball softly, and it landed in no man’s land,” Shelton said.

Newman also gave chase, but he was too far out of position before the pitch.

“Unfortunately, I had a great view of it,” he said. “Edman couldn’t have thrown that ball any better. (Gonzalez) was real close, but that’s a play if he makes that, it’s No. 1 on SportsCenter. Bummer to score two runs on a hit like that, but that’s how baseball is sometimes.”

Actually, the Cardinals did something to set up the runs. Bader and Sosa advanced into scoring position on starting pitcher John Gant’s sacrifice bunt. Sosa’s double in the third inning drove home the Cardinals’ fifth run.

The Pirates scored twice in the sixth inning, but neither of the RBIs left the infield. Polanco, who singled in his first two at-bats, grounded out for one run and Gonzalez singled off relief pitcher Genesis Cabrera’s glove for the other.

Gonzalez, who is hitting .212, leads all active Pirates with 16 RBIs, behind only Moran who has 19, but is on the injured list with a left groin strain.