Cody Ponce shines in first start as Pirates blank Cardinals to sweep doubleheader

The Pittsburgh Pirates arrived in St. Louis in a two-game funk, with a roster depleted by injury and demoralized following a no-hitter by giving up 10 runs to the Chicago White Sox.

A doubleheader was the last thing the Pirates needed.

But a sweep of the Cardinals proved the perfect elixir.

The Pirates followed a 4-3 eight-inning victory in Game 1 with a 2-0 win in the nightcap Thursday at Busch Stadium, their first doubleheader sweep at St. Louis since Sept. 4, 1967. The scheduled seven-inning games were makeups for the postponements of Aug. 10-11, when the Cardinals had a covid-19 outbreak. The postponed Aug. 12 game will be made up as the first game of a doubleheader Sept. 18 at PNC Park.

The Pirates (9-19) accomplished an unusual feat, winning both games without getting an extra-base hit. The last time they did that was July 4, 1918, against the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates have their pitching to thank, as Chad Kuhl allowed one run on four hits and four walks over six innings for the victory in the first game, and Cody Ponce delivered one of the Pirates’ best pitching performances of the season in his first major league start.

Ponce was efficient in pitching 5⅔ shutout innings, allowing five hits with two strikeouts and two walks on a career-high 77 pitches (51 strikes) for his first career victory.

“He stepped up and pitched his butt off,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “That’s a good lineup. The Cardinals are a good team, and he went after people. I thought he did a hell of a job.”

The Pirates staked Ponce to a 2-0 lead in the third inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Erik Gonzalez and Adam Frazier. Ponce got help from a defense that turned a pair of double plays in the first two innings and the quick thinking of right fielder Jose Osuna. After a pop fly dropped in shallow right, Osuna reacted by throwing to second to force out Tommy Edman in the third.

Ponce retired the side on six pitches in the fourth inning and struck out Tommy Edman with a runner on second in the fifth. Ponce got the Cardinals to hit into a pair of groundouts to start the sixth before Brad Miller hit one off the center-field wall that Cole Tucker couldn’t corral for a triple. Geoff Hartlieb relieved Ponce and got Tyler O’Neill to pop out to first. Nik Turley pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save.

After losing their first four extra-inning games this season, the Pirates responded with three runs in the eighth inning and held on to win the first game.

“It was nice to see these guys have some hard contact, to have some good luck go our way,” said Pirates pitcher Chad Kuhl (2-1), who allowed four hits and four walks in six innings to earn the victory.

Cole Tucker, who scored the Pirates’ first run, hit a bloop single off the end of his bat to shallow center to drive in pinch runner Jarrod Dyson for the go-ahead run and scored on Bryan Reynolds’ two-out single. The Pirates added the deciding run when Josh Bell scored on an error by Cardinals third baseman Brad Miller on a Jacob Stallings grounder for a 4-1 lead.

“Especially now, with how extra innings are, Bryan’s hit was just huge to extend the lead to two,” said Stallings, who went 2 for 4 with an RBI. “It was great. We haven’t gotten many breaks, it doesn’t feel like, lately. We hit about, I don’t know, 20 balls to the warning track, so maybe we deserved to find some holes.”

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina tied it in the fifth by driving Chad Kuhl’s 92-mph waist-high fastball into the bullpen in left-center for his first homer of the season.

After the Pirates took a three-run lead, the Cardinals cut it to 4-3 after Kolten Wong’s sacrifice fly to left, where Reynolds made a sliding backhand catch on his knee in fair territory and Paul Goldschmidt ricocheted one off the right ankle of reliever Richard Rodriguez and into right field to score Dylan Carlson.

The last thing the Pirates could afford was to lose Rodriguez on the same day they placed closer Keone Kela on the 10-day injured list with right forearm inflammation. Rodriguez, however, recovered to strike out Miller and Max Schrock for the save.

“I was just kind of like, ‘Oh man, is this for real right now?’” Stallings said. “Richie really beared down. Those were his best six fastballs of the day.”

The Pirates didn’t need extra innings in the nightcap, nor do they get much of a break to celebrate their success. They travel to Milwaukee for a three-game series against the Brewers as part of 15 games in 13 days.

“We’re on our way,” Reynolds said. “We’re going in the right direction. We’re making strides. So it’ll turn here soon. Hopefully we’re on the right path.”