June 2, 2008
Pirates 4, Cardinals 7: Winning with Small Ball
By
Zeldink
Posted at 9:01 am
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pirates (26-30) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 0 |
| Cardinals (34-24) | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 7 | 11 | 1 |
W: Braden Looper (7-4)
The adaptive Cardinals used primarily small-ball tactics and defense to defeat the Pirates. They took advantage of five singles and a walk to score 5 runs. Then their defense and pitching made sure it held up.
St. Louis has been successful this year, taking what their given. Some days they have the home runs flying, sometimes it’s a low-scoring, pitching duel, and some days, like yesterday, they turn singles into runs. A team that follows either a small-ball or 3-run home run strategy is far too one-dimensional to do well, as the homer happy Reds have proved over the past few years.
The two teams close out their series tonight at 8:15pm EDT, with Tom Gorzelanny pitching for the Pirates and Adam Wainwright for the Cardinals.