PITTSBURGH — The Cardinals were a couple of batters away from having to toss a rookie reliever originally drafted as a position player into a tie game to make his major league debut.
Instead, starting pitcher Andre Pallante made it through the seventh inning on four pitches to prevent that from happening in a true all-hands-on-deck scenario, then Cardinals relievers Andrew Kittredge and John King carried a heavy load in order to get the club to the finish line with a win and a series victory in an extra-inning contest on Thursday afternoon.
Kittredge, who pitched 1 1/3 innings in Wednesday’s extra-inning game, threw a season-high 32 pitches in the eighth inning of a tie game, and King pitched the final two innings and allowed just one unearned run with the automatic runner on base in the 10th inning to get the Cardinals a 3-2 win in the rubber match of their three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.
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“Anything we can do to get a win feels worth it,” Kittredge said. “We’ve been asked to do a lot in general, the bullpen. Some guys are tired. Some guys need some breaks. Our job is to try to be as ready as we can every day.
“I think everyone down there has done such a good job of doing what they can to stay ready and not need too much time off but also being good when they do come in the game. It’s really cool to see everyone down there just kind of grinding through it together.”
The Cardinals (45-41) have won three of their past four games as they get set to continue their road trip against the Washington Nationals on Friday night in Washington, D.C.
Pallante, who stepped into the fifth starter spot at the end of May, pitched a season-high seven innings on 90 pitches. He allowed one run on four hits and one walk.
The lone run came on a Bryan Reynolds solo home run in the fourth inning. Pallante struck out five. Pallante left the game with the score tied 1-1. A two-out RBI double by Dylan Carlson in the second inning accounted for the Cardinals’ first run.
With MLB saves leader Ryan Helsley as well as Ryan Fernandez and left-hander JoJo Romero unavailable, the Cardinals had recently promoted right-hander Jacob Bosiokovic warming up to enter the game in the seventh inning if Pallante hadn’t competed that inning.
Pallante got Connor Joe and Rowdy Tellez to groundout on the first pitches of their respective at-bats, then Nick Gonzales hit a fly ball toward the foul line in left field, but Brendan Donovan made a sliding catch to end the seventh.
“Fastball strikes,” Pallante said of the key to his efficient outing. “When I’m throwing my fastball in the zone in good spots, good things are going to happen to me. The more often I can keep that ball in the zone, it keeps the pressure on the hitters and gets them to swing at some pitches that might be off the plate, get a little bit better chase and then get them to swing at my off-speed (pitches).”
In the eighth, Kittredge struck out Ke’Bryan Hayes, then gave up a double to left-center to Jack Suwinski. Pinch hitter Joshua Palacios then drew a walk and put two men on with just one out in a tie game.
Kittredge struck out Pirates leadoff hitter Andrew McCutchen for the second out of the inning, then he and Reynolds locked horns in a 11-pitch battle that included five pitches fouled off — four with a 3-2 count — before Kittredge got Reynolds to swing through an elevated fastball to end the inning and strand two runners on base in a tie game.
“When he’s seen everything at that point, I was just trying to stay away from similar pitches in similar locations,” Kittredge said. “I don’t think, at that point, there’s really a right or wrong pitch. He has seen everything multiple times at that point.
“I was just trying to still mix, maintain a little bit of unpredictability, but knowing that I’ve got to be in the zone or at least close to the zone to get him to swing. I just had to bear down and make a pitch. I’m glad that I outlasted him a little bit.”
The score remained 1-1 going into extra innings, the second extra-inning game between the teams in less than 24 hours.
On Wednesday night, the Cardinals scored to start the 10th inning, but the Pirates (41-45) scored two runs in the bottom of the inning for a walk-off win.
With the automatic runner on second base to start the 10th inning Thursday, Jose Fermin grounded out to second base and advanced the runner, Michael Siani, to third base.
That at-bat solidified catcher Pedro Pages’ approach as he stepped to the plate next.
“Before the at-bat, I saw Fermin’s at-bat,” Pages said. “And in my head, I already had a game plan. I’m going to be on the fastball, first pitch. If he misses, I’m going to look slider.
“He ended up missing with the fastball, first pitch. I sat on the slider, and he threw it up enough and I put a good swing on it.”
Pages’ line drive went to the left-center side of center field. Pirates center fielder Michael A. Taylor, a former Gold Glove winner, had just entered the game as a defensive replacement. Taylor made an unsuccessful diving attempt to catch Pages’ line drive. Siani scored the go-ahead run.
After Masyn Winn (1 for 3, two walks) struck out for the second out of the frame, Alec Burleson (2 for 5) had a chance to add an insurance run.
“You obviously want to score as many runs as you can, right? Because they’re going to start with a guy on second, so obviously one — more times than not — is not going to win the ballgame,” Burleson said.
Pirates reliever Dennis Santana received a mound visit from the pitching coach prior to Burleson’s at-bat. Burleson took stock of the situation and figured Santana had been told, with a base open and two outs, not to give Burleson anything to hit.
Burleson reached out poked a 1-2 change-up that was well off the plate away into left field for an RBI single.
“Probably needed to do a little bit better job of being selective there,” Burleson said. “But I was able to put the bat on the ball. I saw the pitch. It wasn’t even close, but I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. (The approach) was just being on the fastball mostly. I just wanted to drive in a run.”
King, who retired the side in order in the ninth, took the mound with the automatic runner on second base and a two-run edge in the 10th.
King got the first batter, Gonzales, on a fly ball hit to left-center field where the outfield wall juts out and creates a triangle.
Donovan caught the ball but forgot about the automatic runner being on base. The runner, Taylor, tagged up and scored from second base. That cut King’s margin of error to one run.
Hayes flew out for the second out, but then King’s former college teammate at the University of Houston, Jared Triolo, swatted a pinch-hit single on the ground to left field. Then Pirates catcher Joey Bart followed with a single into center field.
That prompted a mound visit from pitching coach Dusty Blake.
“I know my strengths are sinker, change-up,” King said. “I’m going to live and die by that. I’m trying to get it in to those righties, make them uncomfortable and then go change-up away.
“That last inning, I feel like I was letting them off the hook with a change-up. It wasn’t as good. The last couple at-bats, I was just trying to throw my sinker as hard as I could. If I get beat on it, I get beat on it. But that’s a tough pitch to hit.”
After the mound visit, King threw his sinker exclusively to McCutchen with the tying run in scoring position and the potential winning run on base. McCutchen grounded a 1-2 sinker, the sixth consecutive sinker in that at-bat, to Winn for an inning-ending force-out.
“You can’t say enough about what our pen has done, “Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We play a close game every night. Today, our pen was very short. Not a whole lot of guys available, and rightfully so. They’ve been called on quite a bit and have done their job.
“So we had three or four guys down, but Kitt came in and did a really nice job. That Reynolds punchout was huge. King coming in and giving us two innings was extremely important. We continue to see different guys step up in that ’pen, regardless of leverage. There doing the job. A ton of credit to that group.”