Pirates blow lead, lose on walk-off homer in St. Louis

No lead was safe Monday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

The Pirates and Cardinals each gave up multi-run leads in the series opener of their four-game set, but the Cardinals got the last laugh as first baseman Alec Burleson connected on a 1-1 slider from Pittsburgh reliever Dennis Santana to deliver a 7-6 walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.

The pitch Santana threw missed the bottom right corner of the strike zone, but Burleson was somehow able to square it up and send it 409 feet to dead center to cap off a wild back-and-forth battle.

“It happened really fast, obviously,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “But the replay looked like a good pitch and he put a good swing on it. (Alexander) Canario had a heck of an effort there to almost come up with it, banging into the wall.”

The Pirates trailed 6-4 heading into the sixth inning after Andrew Heaney allowed five runs in the fifth, but they chipped away at the Cardinals’ lead. They tied it in the ninth inning when right fielder Ronny Simon drove in Liover Peguero from first base with a double to right field.

Simon was then caught between second and third when Nick Gonzales grounded out to St. Louis reliever Riley O’Brien, ending the late threat.

“Ronny had a huge at-bat there, being able to drive in the tying run,” Kelly said. “We continued to battle, just came up a little short.”

Pirates right-hander Johan Oviedo made his third start since returning from Tommy John surgery and a right lat strain he suffered in spring training. He was limited to 53 pitches over four innings but struck out five and exited with a 4-1 lead after Bryan Reynolds and Spencer Horwitz hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning.

The lone run Oviedo allowed came in the second inning when he issued a leadoff walk to Cardinals third baseman Nolan Gorman before giving up back-to-back singles to second baseman Thomas Saggese and right fielder Jordan Walker.

Oviedo struck out catcher Pedro Pagés, but center fielder Nathan Church delivered a sacrifice fly to score Gorman.

“Coming off of regular rest, we capped (Oviedo’s start) at four ups and 60 (pitches),” Kelly said. “I thought he threw the ball really well. He looked really sharp and the fastball was electric. He kept them off balance with the off-speed and went to the curveball really effectively in the middle of the outing.”

Oviedo has worked 10 innings over his three starts, producing a 3.60 ERA while striking out 14 batters. He’s seen as a piece of the club’s future and is looking to build on what he’s been able to accomplish in his return.

“It felt good,” Oviedo said of his third start. “That’s kind of what I’m looking for in every outing. Try to maximize pitches and try to get quick outs so I can go deeper into the game. So we were happy about today, but sad that we didn’t get the win.”

The momentum swung in St. Louis’ favor when Andrew Heaney entered the game in the fifth inning. The veteran left-hander, who was making his second appearance since being relegated to the bullpen Aug. 16, gave up five hits – two doubles and three singles – and five earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, allowing the Cardinals to take a 6-4 lead.

Heaney has produced a 10.13 ERA in August and has allowed five earned runs in two of his last three outings. After starting the year with a 2.80 ERA in April, his struggles have only increased. He recorded a 5.57 ERA in June and a 9.00 ERA in July before Kelly and his staff decided to move him to the bullpen and allow younger pitchers to take his spot in the starting rotation.

“With moving him to the pen, we were just trying to get him into some outings that were a little more controlled,” Kelly said of Heaney. “We thought it was a good lane there. Just have to keep working. He’s pitched well for us at times, and it seemed like stuff was just catching too much of the plate.”

Colin Holderman and Yohan Ramírez kept the Cardinals at bay in the later innings. Holderman threw 1⅓ innings, allowing one hit, while Ramírez struck out five over two innings of scoreless relief.

Before tying it in the ninth, Gonzales drove in Jack Suwinski with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh to make it 6-5 and cut into the Cardinals’ lead. However, the threat ended when Kyle Leahy struck out Bryan Reynolds, stranding runners on first and third.

While the Pirates tallied five extra-base hits, they went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left six on base while grounding into three double plays.