Pittsburgh Pirates vs St. Louis Cardinals Box Score on Aug 20, 2021

Gregory Polanco drove in two runs and Mitch Keller pitched five scoreless innings as the Pittsburgh Pirates notched a 4-0 victory over the host St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Yoshi Tsutsugo added a pinch-hit homer in the ninth as the Pirates halted a five-game losing streak and won for just the third time in their past 18 games. Both of Polanco's RBIs came on sacrifice flies.

The right-hander Keller (4-10) struck out six and gave up six hits and one walk while ending a five-start winless stretch.

Lars Nootbaar had three hits for St. Louis, which lost for the third time in the past four games.

Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas (0-1) made his first start since May 22 and second since the 2019 season due to arm injuries. He gave up two unearned runs, two hits and two walks while posting five strikeouts.

The Pirates won despite recording just four hits. St. Louis had 10 and left 12 runners on base.

Three Pittsburgh relievers combined for four shutout innings. Duane Underwood Jr. gave up two hits in 1 2/3 innings and David Bednar allowed one in 1 1/3 innings.

Chris Stratton worked the ninth and gave up a two-out single to Paul Goldschmidt before fanning Nolan Arenado to end it.

An error by Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader helped Pittsburgh score two unearned runs in the fourth inning.

Colin Moran led off with a single to right and Jacob Stallings followed with a single to center. But Bader misplayed the ball and it got past him and Moran scored on the miscue and Stallings went all the way to third.

Polanco followed with a sacrifice fly to left to score Stallings and make it 2-0.

Pittsburgh added on in the sixth as Bryan Reynolds led off with a double to left and moved to third on a fly by Moran. After Stallings walked, Polanco hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Reynolds.

Tsutsugo sent a 1-1 changeup from Daniel Ponce de Leon over the fence with two outs in the ninth to make it a four-run margin.

St. Louis left two runners on in the fifth when Goldschmidt lined out and Arenado flew out. The Cardinals came up empty with two on in the sixth when Bader popped out, and left two again in the seventh when Arenado was retired on a soft liner and Tyler O'Neill flew out.

--Field Level Media