The St. Louis Cardinals, playing for pride, won a home series from the division leading Pittsburgh Pirates by closing out a 5-1 win in the rubber match, as starter Lary Sorensen went 8 2/3 innings. Sorensen notched only his second win of the year despite a fine 3.21 ERA. Bruce Sutter was summoned to get the final out.
The teams had split the first two as game one saw a late Pirate rally overtake a 4-3 9th inning Cardinal lead, in an all-too familiar experience for the Cardinals in a frustrating season. Sutter once again gave up a two-out, run scoring hit to allow the opponents to steal a close one. It was Sutter's fourth blown save of the season, and dropped the Redbirds record in one run contests to 1-8. The Cardinals entered the 7th inning in this one up 3-1, but Bob Shirley ensured that it would be a dogfight, coming in with one on in the 7th and immediately surrendering a game tying two-run pinch hit home run to Jason Thompson. The Cards regained the lead with one in the eighth before Sutter's latest failures doomed the club's chances in the ninth.
Game two saw a sudden change in fortune for the Cardinals, as they climbed off the deck to plate three eighth inning runs to turn a 5-3 deficit into a 6-5 lead. This time Sutter pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the win. The Cardinal eighth saw 9 Cardinal batters against Pirate relievers Rod Scurry and Mark Lee, with the Pirates chipping in as well giving up a wild pitch, walk and error. Keith Hernandez and Ken Oberkfell had the big hits, with an RBI single by Hernandez and two run single by Oberkfell. Veteran Luis Tiant started this one for Pittsburgh, and pitched well going 6 2/3 innings and allowing 3 runs on 6 hits. Jim Otten got the win in relief of Joaquin Andujar for St. Louis. The Pirates taunted Andjuar throughout his 7 innings of work, calling him "Ice Cream Candy Bar", and did rap him for 9 hits. But the self proclaimed "One Tough Dominican" pitched well for the most part, and looks to be a solid member of the rotation in the upcoming years. The enigmatic righty likely will get one more start for the Cardinals, to showcase what he might bring to the club next year.
Game three was relatively non-eventful, as the Cardinals put five runs on the board off of Jim Bibby and Grant Jackson. The top of the order did their job with Tony Scott and Garry Templeton scoring twice each, and third hitter Keith Hernandez accounting for the other run. --submitted by BikeMike--
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