Pirates can't solve Adam Wainwright, as Cardinals use 4-run 6th to win

Derek Shelton was well aware of Adam Wainwright’s mastery of the Pittsburgh Pirates, as the 40-year-old St. Louis Cardinals ace was 9-0 with a 1.65 ERA in his last 11 starts against them.

“We’ve got to do something different,” Shelton said. “The formula, so far, has not worked.”

Nothing Shelton came up with could solve Wainwright, who got a cushion when the Cardinals scored four runs in the sixth inning and capitalized on the Pirates’ mishaps for a 5-3 win Friday night before an announced crowd of 14,034 at PNC Park.

Wainwright (5-3) was hardly dominant — he allowed one run on four hits and three walks while striking out three — but was efficient in throwing 63 of 98 pitches for strikes over seven innings.

A defensive lapse allowed the Cardinals to score in the first inning, snapping Zach Thompson’s 12-inning scoreless streak that ranked fourth in the National League.

Tommy Edman hit a leadoff single and advanced to third on Paul Goldschmidt’s single to left to put runners on the corners. Nolan Arenado flew out to right, but first baseman Michael Chavis cut off Jack Suwinski’s throw to the plate. Instead of turning to the protect the plate, Chavis chased Goldschmidt into a rundown and Edman strolled home to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.

Score it a fielder’s choice — and Chavis made the wrong one, given that it allowed a run to score — but Shelton also blamed Suwinski for the high throw that forced Chavis to jump.

“I had to come back in (the dugout) and ask if that was even the right move,” Chavis said. “I turned and looked at him and he was still at third base, kind of floating like near the bag. So with (the play) taking my momentum to first base, (Goldschmidt) was in no-man’s land. So I was like, ‘I can’t just run him back to the bag because nobody’s there,’ so we had to force him at second base. All this happened in a split second, just kind of reacting.”

Thompson (2-4) allowed one run on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts in five innings but got no run support.

“Obviously he’s a really good pitcher and they’re a really good team,” Thompson said. “I just have to go out there and get every out that I can and just try to put up as many zeroes as I possibly can.”

The Pirates had chances to score off Wainwright, who tossed six scoreless innings in a 9-0 win on Opening Day at Busch Stadium. Twice they had runners on first and second with two outs, only for Josh VanMeter to ground out to second base to end the first inning and Rodolfo Castro to be thrown out by Yadier Molina in an attempt to steal third with Ke’Bryan Hayes at the plate to end the fifth.

“We had some opportunities early on when I don’t think his command was as sharp as we’ve seen him in the past, and then he got really sharp,” Shelton said of Wainwright. “We made a mistake in the fifth on the bases after Gamel had the really good at-bat. He kind of locked it in after that.”

In the fifth, Castro hit a two-out single to left and Ben Gamel drew an eight-pitch walk to put runners on first and second for Hayes, who had a 2-0 count when Castro tried to steal third. Shelton said Castro made a good read on how Arenado was playing third but made the mistake of testing the arm of Molina, a nine-time Gold Glove winner.

“That was part of our conversation with Rudy: We have to realize the situation of the game,” Shelton said. “It’s good to be aggressive and it’s good to think aggressively, but understanding where the lineup is, where the pitcher is at that time. He had just walked Gamel.

“The one thing that I give Rudy credit for is a lot of kids that happens to and they don’t bounce back. It affects the rest of the game. … He didn’t let it affect the rest of the game.”

The Cardinals capitalized in the sixth, when Arenado drew a one-out walk and Juan Yepez singled to left off Heath Hembree. Shelton brought in lefty Anthony Banda, who walked rookie Nolan Gorman to load the bases and gave up a bloop single to center to Dylan Carlson to bring in Arenado for a 2-0 Cardinals lead. Molina followed with a single down the left-field line to score Yepez and Gorman for a 4-0 lead, and Harrison Bader singled to left to score Carlson to make it 5-0.

“It does magnify (the mistakes),” Shelton said. “If you multiply on the fact that we had two walks in that inning where they both scored. When you make a mistake like that and then you compound it by giving free passes, good teams capitalize on that, and they did.”

Chavis put the Pirates on the board in the seventh, driving an 0-1 curveball 396 feet to left for his fourth home run to cut it to 5-1. Suwinski followed with a line drive to the North Side Notch, but center fielder Bader chased it down to make the catch before sliding into the cutout in left-center.

The Pirates rallied against Genesis Cabrera in the eighth. Castro reached on a throwing error by Arenado, a nine-time Gold Glove winner at third base, and Gamel and Hayes hit back-to-back singles to left to load the bases. Bryan Reynolds singled through short to score Castro to make it 5-2, and Yoshi Tsutsugo grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Gamel to trim the deficit to 5-3.

Cardinals manager Oli Marmol brought in Giovanny Gallegos, who stranded runners on first and third by getting pinch hitter Diego Castillo to strike out looking and Chavis to go down swinging. Gallegos struck out the side in the ninth, getting Suwinski and Michael Perez swinging and Castro looking at a called third strike to end the game and earn his eighth save.

“He was going to have to get five outs, and we had him in the situation,” Shelton said. “We just didn’t score.”