Pirates stop Cards in series opener

Pirates stop Cards in series opener

MLB.com ST. LOUIS — Pirates manager Clint Hurdle nearly kept outfielder Gregory Polanco out of Monday's lineup over concerns about how a sore left hamstring would affect his mobility. As it turned out, they would only need him to trot.

Polanco not only played, but he delivered the two biggest swings, lifting the Pirates to a 4-2 victory over the Cardinals with his first career multihomer game. The win, which came in front of an Independence Day crowd of 41,850 at Busch Stadium, extended Pittsburgh's winning streak to five games and halted St. Louis' at three.

'Just glad that I was able to come back out today,' said Polanco, who's been playing through pain for a week and a half. 'Hitting or swinging, I don't feel it at all. It doesn't bother me in any way, and I'm grateful for that.'

Polanco wiped away the Cardinals' 1-0 lead by following John Jaso's leadoff double with a two-run blast in the sixth. Cardinals starter Carlos Martinez served up that homer, as well as an RBI single to Jaso an inning later that closed his seven-inning start. Though Martinez has allowed four earned runs in his last four starts (27 innings), the Cardinals have lost all four. Polanco added a solo shot in the eighth.

'It's something that happens,' Martinez said, speaking through a translator. 'I trust in my team. … I know we're going to get back in the rhythm. I feel really good mentally and physically, and I feel like I've reached a point in my career where I'm mentally mature enough to be able to pitch at this level.'

Pirates starter Jonathon Niese weaved his way through 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run on seven hits. He then turned the game over to the bullpen, which extended its scoreless- innings streak to 34 1/3 before Neftali Feliz allowed an inherited runner to score on Matt Carpenter's two-out double in the ninth.

'We've got a lot of talent. We've got a lot of swagger going,' Niese said. 'It feels good to win. Just as you can say losing's contagious, so is winning. It's a lot of fun right now. Hopefully we can keep it going.'

• Bodley: After sputtering start, Pirates suddenly redhot MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Game-time decision? Midmorning Monday, the Pirates didn't have a lineup written out. Hurdle was still awaiting word to see if Polanco could play right field with his sore left leg until 11:45 a.m. CT, an hour and a half before the scheduled first pitch. The soreness had limited Polanco to six innings of defense since June 24, but it didn't keep him out of the lineup Monday afternoon. Good thing for the Pirates, too, because he went on to record his first career multihomer game, lining one homer to right and a solo shot to left.

'He felt he could navigate out there. He could make plays,' Hurdle said. 'He's continuing to work. He's continuing to be a force in the lineup. … Real strong performance from him.'

Record pace: Carpenter, the National League leader in OPS (1.008) and on-base percentage (.427), gave the Cardinals a brief lead with his fifth-inning RBI single and closed the deficit to two with an RBI double in the ninth. The pair of runscoring hits gave Carpenter 53 RBIs through the team's first 82 games. Only one leadoff hitter in baseball history has driven in 100 runs in a season, and that was Darin Erstad, who tallied exactly that many in 2000 with the Angels. At his current pace, Carpenter would break that record. He finished Monday's game with three hits.

Immaculate Inning: After flame-throwing right-hander Arquimedes Caminero recorded four outs in relief, Hurdle called on right-hander Juan Nicasio, making his fourth appearance since being bumped to the bullpen. Facing Stephen Piscotty, Jhonny Peralta and Yadier Molina, Nicasio struck out the side on nine pitches. The 'immaculate inning' was the Pirates' first since Sept. 5, 2009, and the first in the Majors this season. More > 'Very joyful and grateful to be a part of that history,' Nicasio said through interpreter Mike Gonzalez. 'I just found out and it put a big smile on my face.'

QUOTABLE 'It feels great being over .500. … We don't worry about the past. What happened in June happened in June. Now we're moving forward.' — Polanco 'I think all year we have been consistently good as an offense. It's just one of those days. We had a bunch of good at-bats. We hit the ball hard. We just kind of hit the ball at guys and didn't capitalize on chances. -Cardinals first baseman Jedd Gyorko

By Adam Berry and Jenifer Langosch