Post-Game Wrapup: Cardinals 3 – Pirates 2

W: M. Batista (1-0)

L: G. Olson (0-1)

S: R. Franklin (1)

Post-Game Wrapup: The Pirates hopes of winning back-to-back road series for the first time since 2007, will come down to the team beating Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter on Wednesday.

Albert Pujols who came into Tuesday’s game 2-for-16 on the season and 0-for-3 in the series, had the tying and go-ahead RBIs, leading the Cardinals to a 3-2 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday.

The Pirates fell to 3-2 on the season.

— For the Pirates they were just not able to get much going offensively, after Lyle Overbay’s (2-for-3, HR, 2RBI’s) two run homer in the first inning off of starter Kyle McClellan.

McClellan allowed 6 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings pitched, while striking out 7 batters.

— Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker went a combined 0 for 8 with 6 strikeouts in the game. The Pirates had a total of 11 strikeouts. They are team through five games that strikes out a lot and that’s been concerning as there approach wasn’t good tonight.

— The positive for the Pirates again was getting good enough starting pitching to win for the fifth straight game.

James McDonald who battled a nagging injury in spring training, pitched a no hitter through three innings and in 4.2 innings pitched, allowed 4 hits and 2 runs.

He left the game in the 5th inning with a pitch count of 87. The team was going to monitor his pitch count due to his limited work in the spring and getting close to 5 innings from McDonald was a success.

McDonald also struck out 4 and walked 4 batters. It was a solid outing for McDonald.

— Matt Diaz just doesn’t look comfortable at the plate and there’s an opportunity opening up for Garrett Jones to continue to win playing time.

— The Pirates today signed reliever Dan Meyer to a minor league deal. Meyer will report to Triple-A Indianapolis. He was released by the Philadelphia Phillies last week.

— 24 year old pitching prospect Bryan Morris has been named the Altoona Curve’s opening day starter. The hope inside the organization is for Morris to move quickly up to Triple-A Indy this season.

Morris was 6-4 with a 4.25 ERA with Altoona last season.