04/30/26 02:52:00
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04/30 14:51 CDT Cardinals get to Skenes early as St. Louis completes 4-game
sweep in Pittsburgh with 10-5 victory
Cardinals get to Skenes early as St. Louis completes 4-game sweep in Pittsburgh
with 10-5 victory
By WILL GRAVES
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) --- JJ Wetherholt led off with a home run against Pirates ace
Paul Skenes, and the St. Louis Cardinals finished off a four-game sweep of the
Pittsburgh Pirates with a 10-5 win on Thursday.
Skenes (4-2) fell to 0-5 against the Cardinals after allowing five runs, four
earned, in five innings. The reigning NL Cy Young Award winner's brilliant
April finished with a rare dud, as Pittsburgh's losing streak hit five.
The 23-year-old had been masterful after a shaky performance on opening day,
allowing only three runs over his last five starts. The Cardinals matched that
in the first inning alone.
Wetherholt, who grew up in the Pittsburgh suburbs, sent a cutter into the
right-field seats three pitches into the game. Jordan Walker followed three
batters later by turning on a sweeper that scraped over the left-field wall,
marking just the second time in Skenes' 62 big league starts that he
surrendered multiple homers in the same inning.
Alec Burleson finished with three hits and drove in three runs for the
Cardinals. Wetherholt, Walker, Nolan Gorman, and Pedro Pages had two hits each.
Nathan Church added a two-run double during a five-run eighth to give the
Cardinals some breathing room after the Pirates had cut a four-run deficit to
one.
Gordon Graceffo (2-0) won in relief of starter Hunter Dobbins, who didn't make
it out of the fifth inning in his first major league start since tearing the
ACL in his right knee last summer while playing for Boston. Dobbins was
acquired in December's trade that sent Willson Contreras to the Red Sox.
Bryan Reynolds had two hits and drove in three runs for the Pirates. Brandon
Lowe hit his eighth homer for Pittsburgh, which played sloppy defense behind
Skenes to head into May with its promising start to the season in danger of
slipping away.
Up next
Cardinals: return home to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend.
Pirates: host NL Central rival Cincinnati to start a three-game weekend series
on Friday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
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