Saturday, September 29, 2007
The defending World Series champs will be home for the playoffs this season.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals finally put together a three-game winning streak in September.
Too little, too late.
Jim Edmonds broke open a tight game with a three-run single in the eighth inning, and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1 Friday night for their third straight win.
St. Louis entered September in the thick of the National League Central playoff race. After closing to within a game of the division lead Sept. 6, the Cardinals promptly lost 14 of their next 16.
“You know what? It would be a lot nicer if we put this together a long time ago,” Edmonds said. “Right now, nothing feels good. We’re not in the playoffs, and we’re just kind of hanging out. It doesn’t feel that good anymore. We’re just trying to get to the end of the year.”
So Taguchi drove in two runs and David Eckstein scored three times for the defending World Series champions, who will be forced to watch the playoffs this time around when the three-game series concludes Sunday.
Assured last place
Matt Kata had two hits and the lone RBI for the Pirates, who assured themselves of a last-place finish with their 11th loss in the past 13 games.
The go-ahead run scored without a hit, when Eckstein led off the eighth with a walk and stole second. Rick Ankiel sacrificed him to third and Albert Pujols was intentionally walked by John Grabow (3-2), who hit Ryan Ludwick with a pitch. After getting ahead of Taguchi 1-2, Grabow walked in the go-ahead run.
Two batters and two pitchers later, Edmonds delivered a pinch-hit single to right that Steve Pearce dove for and missed. All three runners scored to make it 5-1.
“It was luck,” Edmonds said. “I hit the ball off the end of the bat, and the guy broke back. I’m just trying to put the ball in play; I’m not really trying to do anything special.”
Russ Springer (8-1) worked the seventh for his career-high eighth victory.
Pittsburgh’s Zach Duke, a rookie phenom two seasons ago, lowered his ERA to 5.53 in his third outing since coming off the disabled list due. He allowed one run and eight hits without a walk in seven innings.