Cardinals flip Pirates’ early edge with five-run third and fourth in 5-1 win

Lowe’s homer started it; the Cardinals changed the script

For two innings, Pittsburgh had the game exactly where it wanted it. Lowe’s 434-foot drive to right-center in the second inning gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead and briefly supplied the cleanest offensive moment of the night for the home side.

What followed was the decisive turn. St. Louis did not answer with one overwhelming swing, but with a string of connected plays in the third. Alec Burleson singled to center to bring home JJ Wetherholt and tie the game, while Ivan Herrera advanced to third. Moments later, Herrera scored on a wild pitch by Curtis, pushing the Cardinals in front. Leo Bernal then added another single, this one to right, and Burleson came home for a 3-1 lead.

That inning mattered because it erased Pittsburgh’s advantage and changed the game from a one-swing contest into a chase. The Cardinals made sure it did not stop there. In the fourth, Masyn Winn doubled to center to score José Fermín, and Wetherholt followed with a single to right that brought Winn home. By the end of the fourth, St. Louis had built all the cushion it would need at 5-1.

A middle-order answer without the one big blast

There is something telling about the way St. Louis built this win. The Cardinals finished with 10 hits, outpacing Pittsburgh’s six, and their scoring came from steady accumulation rather than one dramatic blow. Burleson tied the game and later scored. Wetherholt scored the first Cardinals run and drove in the fifth. Herrera’s trip around the bases turned into the go-ahead run, and Bernal, Winn and Fermín all had direct roles in the rally that separated the clubs.

That is often the shape of a solid road win: an early deficit absorbed, pressure reapplied, then broadened. The scoring summary shows St. Louis getting runs from a single, a wild pitch, another single, a double and one more single. Five runs, five different moments, and each one pushed the Pirates a little farther away from their opening lead.

Pittsburgh’s problem was not sloppiness in the field; neither team committed an error. It was the inability to answer once the Cardinals seized the middle innings. Lowe’s home run remains the Pirates’ standout detail from the scoreboard, but after that second-inning shot, the offense could not find the next run. Six hits can be enough to keep a game tight, yet the Pirates were held to one on a night when St. Louis kept adding pressure.

Our take: the game swung when one inning became two

Our take: the third inning was the pivot, but the fourth made the result feel settled. Teams recover from a 3-1 deficit all the time; they recover less often when the opponent immediately follows with two more runs. That is what gives this Cardinals win some substance beyond the final margin. They did not merely erase an early problem. They answered it, then reinforced the answer before Pittsburgh could reset.

For St. Louis, the encouraging part is obvious. Falling behind 1-0 did not change the night’s direction for long, and the offense showed enough variety to score without waiting for a home run. If there is a reasonable area to sharpen, it is simply this: a 10-hit game can sometimes create even more separation than four runs of margin. That is not a complaint so much as a reminder that a productive night still left room for more.

For Pittsburgh, the clearest lesson is about containment. A one-run lead turned into a two-run deficit in the third and a four-run deficit by the end of the fourth. When games tilt that quickly, the immediate task is stopping the inning from growing, then finding a reply before the scoreboard hardens. The Pirates never found that reply here. The final line says 5-1, but the real story is narrower and sharper: St. Louis owned two innings, and those two innings owned the game.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   Lowe homered to right center (434 feet).

2. 3rd Inning

   Burleson singled to center, Wetherholt scored, Herrera to third.

3. 3rd Inning

   Herrera scored on Curtis wild pitch, Burleson to second on wild pitch by Curtis.

4. 3rd Inning

   Herrera scored on Curtis wild pitch, Burleson to second on wild pitch by Curtis.

5. 3rd Inning

   Bernal singled to right, Burleson scored.

6. 4th Inning

   Winn doubled to center, Fermín scored.

7. 4th Inning

   Wetherholt singled to right, Winn scored.