Final: Cardinals 12, Pirates 3
WP: Lance Lynn (5-0, 1.60 ERA)
LP: A.J. Burnett (1-2, 8.04 ERA)
Not much to say about this one other than I am happy it is over. A.J. Burnett gave up 12 runs on 12 hits in 2 2/3 innings. It is pretty amazing he lasted as long as he did, but it became apparent after a while the Pirates were just using him to try to eat up some innings. That strategy back fired.
Carlos Beltran did the damage for the Cardinals hitting two homers and collecting seven RBI, all in the first three innings.
Brad Lincoln once again did a marvelous job out of the bullpen with 2 1/3 scoreless innings. His ERA is down to 0.87. Once again, I’d like to say that I think he really has a nice future ahead of him in the back-end of the bullpen.
Pedro Alvarez was 2 for 3 with a walk raising his slash line to .242/.286/.576. 15 days ago, those numbers read .042/.042/.167. Quite a two weeks.
Juan Cruz pitched a scoreless inning of relief. He has pitched 9 1/3 scoreless innings to start off the year with nine strikeouts.
The 12 runs that Burnett gave up were the most by a Pirates starting pitcher since Glenn Spencer accomplished the same “feat” in 1932 against the Chicago Cubs. The Pirates lost that game 12-3, too.
