The Pirates continued a familiar trend today in beating the Cardinals 3-1 – the opposing starter (Chris Carpenter) dominated the Pirates’ starter (Kevin Correia) in the statistics that matter over time (strikeouts, walks), but the Pirates starter got the better results.
Correia piled up seven shutout innings while striking out three and walking two. The Cardinals hit several balls hard, including a couple of deep fly balls, but in another trend for Pirates opponents, none of them went over the fence.
Ryan Doumit knocked in the first run of the game with an RBI double in the fourth. Neil Walker hit a solo homer in the fifth to make it 2-0. In the eighth, Andrew McCutchen and Lyle Overbay hit back-to-back ground-rule doubles to add an insurance run. Yadier Molina doubled home Lance Berkman in the ninth to make it 3-1, but that was all the Cardinals could manage.
By the way, Evan Meek, who was a goat in two of the Pirates’ five previous games, pitched a 1-2-3 inning today, but he didn’t look great doing it, hanging a breaking ball against one of the Cardinals’ weaker hitters (Ryan Theriot) and allowing a liner and a deep fly ball to two good ones (Colby Rasmus and Albert Pujols).