Yadier Molina hit the first pitch he saw Saturday night right on the screws and then watched in disbelief, his hands glued to the sides of his pine-tarred helmet, as the play before him unfolded into the first recorded 4-5-4 triple play in major league history.
With St. Louis Cardinals runners on second and third and no outs in the second inning, Neil Walker snared Molina’s screaming line drive and threw to third baseman Jung Ho Kang, doubling off Jhonny Peralta.
Jason Heyward, the runner coming from second, had slowed to a walk, thinking the inning was over. Kang made the same mistake, initially, but heard Walker’s calls and threw to second to complete the rare triple play.
Molina would get revenge, doubling home Heyward and Peralta in the third to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game at 4-3, but the Pirates clawed back with one big hit after another against the hottest team in baseball.
Jordy Mercer knocked a bases-loaded, two-run double off the wall in the sixth to put the Pirates ahead for good in a 7-5 win before a sellout crowd of 38,068 at PNC Park.
After losing the series opener, 8-5, on Friday, manager Clint Hurdle noted that while the Pirates had collected 12 hits, they were still missing “the big one.”
Saturday, the Pirates scored three runs apiece in the second and the sixth, sandwiched around the Cardinals’ five-run fourth, and defeated their National League Central nemesis for the first time in eight games.
Left fielder Starling Marte, the cleanup hitter who had hit .344 in his previous 16 games, left after three innings due to “severe dizziness,” according to the Pirates. He was replaced by Sean Rodriguez.
Right-hander Vance Worley lasted just five innings. He allowed nine hits and five runs and walked three. He had gone 7-2 with a 2.14 ERA in his previous nine starts at PNC Park.
Right-hander Carlos Martinez, 3-0 on the season, pitched into the sixth inning but was lit up for seven hits and seven runs. He walked four and struck out seven.
Kang, getting the spot start at third, was 2 for 4 with a run scored, raising his batting average to .318. Before the game, Hurdle said Kang had given the team “a shot in the arm.”
The Pirates’ triple play was the first turned against the Cardinals since 2003, an unassisted triple play by Atlanta Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal. One runner on base for that play was Mike Matheny, now the Cardinals’ manager.
The Pirates defense had a triple play last September. The latest was their third triple play in the past two decades.
Momentum was on the Pirates’ side after the rare defensive feat, and they rode it to a three-run third inning. Pedro Alvarez scored on a wild pitch, and two more came home on a run-scoring groundout and back-to-back doubles.
The Cardinals charged back in the fourth, batting around and scoring five runs on six hits and two walks.
With two down in the fifth, Walker launched a 3-1 fastball high into the dark sky and over the right-field wall for a solo shot, his second homer of the year and the Pirates’ first in four games.
The Pirates rallied again in the sixth, as Mercer stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and socked a first-pitch sinker off the wall in center for a two-run double. Pinch-hitter Corey Hart followed with a sacrifice fly, giving the Pirates a 7-5 lead.
Stephen J. Nesbitt: snesbitt@post-gazette.com and Twitter @stephenjnesbitt.
First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:03 p.m.
