Pirates turn Burleson’s early blast into a footnote in 2-1 win over Cardinals

The first inning said plenty, then stopped saying much

Burleson’s 395-foot drive to right-center looked, for a moment, like the kind of early blow that can tilt an afternoon. Instead, it became the game’s lone loud offensive moment for St. Louis. Pittsburgh answered in the bottom of the first when Brandon Lowe singled to left and brought home Oneil Cruz, erasing the deficit before the game had a chance to settle into a script.

After that exchange, the matchup turned tight and stubborn. The Cardinals finished with five hits, two walks and 10 strikeouts, and they left 11 runners on base. The Pirates were hardly cleaner, collecting seven hits and three walks while striking out eight times and leaving 18 aboard. For long stretches, both offenses could start an inning without ever quite finishing one.

That is why the line score matters so much here. It shows Pittsburgh finding the separating run in the eighth, and in a 2-1 game that single inning became the whole difference. St. Louis never found a second answer.

Skenes kept the damage to one swing

The Pirates won this with pitching discipline after the first-inning mistake. Paul Skenes worked 6 1/3 innings, allowed three hits and one run, walked two and struck out eight on 96 pitches, 60 for strikes. That line reads like control reasserted. Burleson got him once, but the rest of the Cardinals rarely built anything durable against him.

What stands out just as much is how cleanly Pittsburgh carried the game after Skenes exited. Yohan Ramirez covered 2/3 of an inning without allowing a run. Gregory Soto gave up two hits in his 2/3 inning but still kept St. Louis off the board, and Luke Weaver handled the final 1/3 inning with a strikeout. The bullpen did not overpower the game so much as keep it from tilting back.

St. Louis, to its credit, pitched well enough to win many 1-1 games. Kyle Leahy gave up the early tying run over 2 innings while striking out three. Cooper Hjerpe followed with 3 1/3 scoreless innings and three strikeouts, even with three walks mixed in. Gordon Graceffo, Brycen Mautz and Ryne Stanek then combined for the final 2 innings without allowing a run. If the Cardinals leave Pittsburgh frustrated, the pitching staff is not the hard part to explain.

Our take: both lineups left this one unfinished

Pittsburgh can enjoy the result without pretending the offense was sharp. Cruz and Konnor Griffin had two hits apiece, Lowe supplied the first RBI, and the Pirates also stole two bases. But a club that puts seven hits and three walks on the board and still scores only twice is living on thin margins. Our take: the encouraging part is that Pittsburgh kept creating traffic; the obvious improvement is turning more of that traffic into something decisive before the late innings. The 18 runners left on base make that impossible to ignore.

The Cardinals have a blunter problem from this game. Burleson provided all of the scoring with one swing, JJ Wetherholt was the only St. Louis batter with more than one hit, and too many plate appearances ended without the ball being forced into play. Ivan Herrera, Jordan Walker, Leo Bernal and Masyn Winn struck out twice each. Our take: when a lineup punches out 10 times and strands 11, the offense becomes too dependent on a solo homer or a perfect sequencing break that may never come.

So the reaction to this result is fairly clear. Pittsburgh deserves credit for taking the early hit, matching it immediately and then letting its pitching carry the rest. St. Louis will see a one-run loss and know its staff held up its end for most of the day. In games this small, the cleanest summary is often the truest one: the Pirates found one more scoring inning than the Cardinals did, and nothing else mattered more.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Inning

   Burleson homered to right center (395 feet).

2. 1st Inning

   Lowe singled to left, Cruz scored.

3. 8th Inning

   Horwitz hit sacrifice fly to center, Simon scored.