I am just a little bit of a Cardinals fan. Thus, I was very happy last night when Jake Arrieta and the Cubs managed to take at least one game of their series against the Pirates. This helped, given the way that the Cards closer, Trevor Rosenthal, had blown up in the ninth inning earlier that day, as it brought the Cards magic number down to four.
So the Cards/Pirates game was on TV tonight, which meant I was going to end up watching it. And the Pirates found pretty much every possible way not to score.
The Cardinals, on the other hand, were using the classic method for not scoring: don't hit.
And so it came to the top of the ninth inning and the Pirates closer came on in a 0-0 game. With one out, Carpenter singled. Then Jay singled, and Polanco and McCutchen mishandled the ball just badly enough that Carpenter scored from first to give the Cards a 1-0 lead. Then Reynolds homered. 3-0.
Out to the mound came Rosenthal.
And he gave up a leadoff hit. And a walk. So now the tying run came to the plate.
And there was a strikeout, a mid-deep fly out, and a line out to the first baseman.
That would be three outs and an exciting save.
The Cardinals magic number is down to two.
Phew.
