Wil Crowe gets 1st MLB win, Pirates beat Cardinals 5-4

The pitcher’s win has gradually lost its luster in recent decades. New-age baseball statheads tend to scoff at it.

Don’t tell that to Wil Crowe. Not after he earned his first MLB win in what was his 13th career start, a 5-4 Pittsburgh Pirates victory at the St. Louis Cardinals.

“Not a lot of people have wins in the big leagues,” Crowe said, “and the modern stat people might not care or whatever. I don’t care. It’s a ‘W,’ and I get to say that I won a big league game, and that’s awesome. And no one can take that away from me “

No one took it from Crowe, but the Pirates bullpen did help preserve it after Crowe had allowed a career-most 11 baserunners over his first four innings alone.

Knowing what was on the line for Crowe, manager Derek Shelton let him pitch the fifth inning to qualify for the win. The righthander rewarded him with his only perfect inning, punctuating his outing with his second strikeout.

“That fifth inning for me was a big growing moment, a big opportunity,” Crowe said. “My tank is almost empty and for me, it’s just bear down. I didn’t have my best stuff today, but bear down, get those guys out, make them put it in play, get through five and get it to our dogs out in the bullpen.”

Despite four walks, the trio of Clay Holmes, Chasen Shreve and Kyle Crick got through the next three innings before Richard Rodriguez struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 10th save.

“That,” said Shelton, “was a hard-fought win.”

The Pirates have won three of four and are 5-2 since snapping a 10-game losing streak last week.

Friday’s victory came despite managing just one extra-base hit and allowing 16 St. Louis batters to reach. The Cardinals collected eight hits, two walks and a hit batter over the first four innings against Crowe. But their lone lead was 1-0, and the Pirates were buoyed by a four-run fourth.

Ke’Bryan Hayes and Kevin Newman each had two hits for the Pirates, who clinched a third consecutive non-losing series. Newman had a double, and Hayes scored twice. Hayes, Phillip Evans and Jacob Stallings had RBI singles.

Evans drove in two, aided by a drop of the ball by Cardinals rightfielder Lars Nootbaar in a diving attempt at a catch in the third. Stallings provided the winning run when he drove in Reynolds in the fifth.

“We made good plays tonight, had some timely hits and our bullpen came in and did what they did, held them down,” Stallings said. “It was a weird game, 5-4 and it took forever (3 hours, 46 minutes). It was a good win for us. Big win.”

For no one was it bigger than for Crowe, a 26-year-old rookie acquired as one part of the return from the Washington Nationals in the Josh Bell trade. Crowe (1-4) allowed four extra-base hits, including home runs by Nolan Arenado and Dylan Carlson in the third and fourth innings, respectively. Crowe also gaffed significantly in the second inning when he hit St. Louis pitcher Kwang-hyun Kim with a 2-2 curveball when two men were on with one out and Kim was squared around to bunt.

Carlson followed by grounding into a fielder’s choice that drove in Nootbaar.

“There have been games where he’s thrown the ball better than this,” Shelton said. “(But) the fact that he continued to grind, it was extremely humid (84 degrees), he did a nice job. It’s nice to see him get his first win.

“When you check off that box as a major league starter and get your first win, it’s extremely special.”

Even against a struggling Cardinals offense that had averaged 2.85 runs per game in losing 15 of their prior 20.

Crowe’s plans for the game ball were to put it on display over the All-Star break when he and his wife set up the nursery for their unborn son.

“That,” Crowe said, “might be the first thing on the shelf.”

“It feels good,” he said moments earlier of his first MLB win. “It feels like it was kind of a monkey on my back, and the first one to me felt like it was the hardest one. You don’t have to worry about trying to get the first win anymore, and it’s not in the back of your head anymore, so just build off it and keep going.”

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