John Jaso, Gregory Polanco, Gerrit Cole and the Pirates whipped the Cardinals 10-5 Sunday to escape St. Louis with a series victory.
The Pirates scored three runs in the fifth including a John Jaso line drive that went just over the wall in right field for his third homer of the season. Then in the sixth, Starling Marte hit a ground-rule double, then came home on a line-drive single by David Freese.
Cole gave a run back on Jeremy Hazelbaker’s solo homer in the bottom of the inning and left the game after throwing 104 pitches through six, but otherwise was terrific, striking out seven, walking just two and getting a ton of called strikes.
In the seventh. Matt Joyce walked and Jaso doubled to start the inning, and then Andrew McCutchen singled Joyce home. Then Polanco hit a home run .
The Bucs tacked on a couple runs in the ninth for good measure, thanks to a double from Marte and RBI singles by Josh Harrison and Stewart. They notched 14 hits total, including three each for Jaso (who came within a triple of the cycle) and Marte.
Ryan Vogelsong took over in the ninth and loaded the bases, leading the Bucs to bring in Mark Melancon, who got the save. The Pirates are now 17-14, and they’ve won five of six so far this season against St. Louis. The Reds are up next tonight at 7:10 Jon Niese is on the mound for the Bucs.
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