Bedard whiffs 11; Bucs set record with 17 strikeouts

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS

Over and over again, the scene was repeated. St. Louis hitters just kept trudging back to the dugout, bats on their shoulders.

Erik Bedard struck out a season-high 11, including a team-record seven in a row, and the Pittsburgh Pirates set a club mark by fanning 17 batters Thursday in a 6-3 win over the Cardinals.

“I was throwing pitches and they were swinging through it,” Bedard said. “I guess I was in a good groove. I don’t remember getting seven.”

Bedard (2-4) was pulled after five innings and 104 pitches, keeping St. Louis off-balance with an assortment of soft tosses.

Pittsburgh relievers kept piling up the strikeouts — the 17 Ks were the most by Pittsburgh in a nine-inning game since 1900, the team said in citing research by the Elias Sports Bureau.

“It’s a way to keep them from scoring runs,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “But as you saw, they had the tying run at the plate at the end of the game, so they kept fighting.”

The strikeouts were the most by the Pirates in any game since they fanned 18 Cubs over 20 innings in 1980.

The last time the Cardinals fanned so often in a nine-game game was 1989, when they struck out 18 times against the Cubs. St. Louis struck out 19 times in a 20-inning loss to the Mets in 2010.

In all, 11 St. Louis hitters struck out, including three pinch hitters. Six players fanned twice. David Freese, who entered second on the team with 23 strikeouts, was the only starter who didn’t strike out.

Pedro Alvarez hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth as Pittsburgh avoided a sweep.