PITTSBURGH — This article originally appeared on PGHBaseballNOW.com.
For the first time this season, the Pittsburgh Pirates are on a losing streak.
Braxton Ashcraft had a rare shaky start and the Pirates dropped their third straight game with an 11-7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park on Tuesday night.
Scoring Plays
Top 2nd, 1-0 STL: Nolan Gorman led off the inning with a solo home run to right field off Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft (1-2)
Top 3rd, 3-0 STL: Victor Scott II hit a solo shot that bounced into the Allegheny River on 1-2 curveball left up in the zone. Later in the inning, the Cardinals (16-13) tacked on another when Jordan Walker singled home JJ Wetherholt with two outs.
Top 5th, 6-0 STL: Alec Burleson plated a run with a ground-rule double and Walker added another with a sac fly to center. After Ashcraft exited with a runner on third and one out, Gorman plated the third run of the inning with a sac fly off Hunter Barco.
Bottom 6th, 6-3 STL: Oneil Cruz got the Pirates (16-14) on the board with a solo shot off Cardinals starter Kyle Leahy (3-3). Three batters later, Ryan O’Hearn connected on a two-run shot to cut the deficit in half.
Top 7th, 9-3 STL: The Cardinals answered with three runs off Barco. Walker singled home a run, Gorman had an RBI groundout to first and Masyn Winn delivered a two-out, run scoring single to right field.
Top 8th, 11-3 STL: Burleson added on two more off Barco with a two-run double that split the right-center gap.
Bottom 8th, 11-6 STL: O’Hearn delivered an RBI single off Justin Bruihl and scored on a two-run single off the bat of Nick Gonzales.
Bottom 9th, 11-7 PIT: Konnor Griffin hit his first home run at PNC Park, a solo shot to right-center off Matt Swanson.
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