Spencer Horwitz homers, Konnor Griffin has four hits to help Pirates blank Cardinals
ST. LOUIS — Spencer Horwitz homered, Konnor Griffin had four singles, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-0 Wednesday night to snap a four-game losing streak.
Carmen Mlodzinski (4-3) allowed four hits and a walk in five innings to improve to 3-0 with a 1.75 ERA in 11 career appearances against the Cardinals.
Yohan Ramírez, Evan Sisk, Justin Lawrence and Dennis Santana each pitched a scoreless inning of relief for Pittsburgh, which gave up five hits.
The Pirates led 3-0 when they scored four runs in the eighth inning off Cardinals reliever Matt Svanson. Bryan Reynolds had a two-run double in the inning.
The Cardinals' Alec Burleson hit a one-out single off Ramírez in the sixth inning, Jordan Walker was hit by a pitch and Nolan Gorman walked to load the bases.
However, Ramírez struck out Masyn Winn and retired César Prieto on a fly to deep right field that forced Jake Mangum to make a sliding catch on the warning track.
Michael McGreevy (3-3) allowed three runs on 10 hits in five-plus innings to snap a streak of four consecutive starts where he allowed two runs in 24 innings.
Jhostynxon Garcia hit a two-out single up the middle in the top of the fourth inning to drive in Griffin for his first major league RBI to put the Pirates ahead 2-0.
Horwitz hit his fourth homer of the season down the right field line to lead off the second inning and give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis was shutout for the second time this season after being blanked by Kansas City on Sunday.
Pirates RHP Braxton Ashcraft (2-2, 3.09 ERA) will face St. Louis RHP Dustin May (3-4, 4.81) in Thursday’s series finale.
