The Pittsburgh Pirates were in the playoffs for the first time in two decades and after defeating the Cincinnati Reds in the wild card game, they matched up against their division rivals in the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division series, but they couldn't advance to the NLCS against the Dodgers and now their magical run is over.
The Pirates were one of the most exciting teams in baseball all season and with players like Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen, the team should be good for years, but they weren't good enough on Wednesday night. The Cardinals pitched Adam Wainwright and he was just too good, going the distance for the team as they won to return to the National League championship series.
The Cardinals will now play the Dodgers in the NLCS series and amazingly, according to ESPN.com, they are now 8-1 over the past three seasons when facing elimination in the playoffs. The Cardinals went down 2-1 in the series but were able to force a game 5 matchup on Wednesday and they didn't need more than they got from Wainwright, as he was helped by two 2-tun home runs from David Freese and Matt Adams.
The Pirates put Gerrit Cole on the mound and while he was solid to start, Freese was able to put in the home run and then Adams hit a deep shot to put the lead even father out of reach. The Cardinals have been very impressive this season and they showed why on Wednesday and now they will advance to play against the dodgers, who defeated the Braves 3-1 in their series. Mark Melancon gave up a rare home run to Adams and then the Cardinals added one more later in the game.
The Pirates gave their fans a season to remember after not making the postseason for 20 years and this was the first year without a losing record since the early 90s. Wainwright has been a dominant postseason pitcher and now he has improved to 4-0 with a near 2.00 ERA in 15 games in the playoffs while starting six games, as he also previously was the closer when the Cards won their championship back in 2006. The team now is set to take on the dodgers and that series puts two of the best teams in the NL against each other.
Wainwright pitched a complete game and ended up with six strikeouts with only one walk and the Pirates could not do much against him. Cole pitched in Game 2 and won, but this time around he could not outmatch Wainwright and Freese added to his playoffs heroics from when the team won the World Series a couple years ago, as he added another hue home run.