Pittsburgh 5, St. Louis 0
When: 1:35 PM ET, Sunday, April 29, 2018
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Temperature:
41°
Umpires:
Home -
Ed Hickox, 1B -
John Tumpane, 2B -
Jerry Meals, 3B -
Gabe Morales
Attendance:
14378
By Field Level Media
Pittsburgh right-hander Nick Kingham, making his major league debut, pitched 6 2/3 perfect innings -- seven one-hit innings total -- Sunday in the Pirates' 5-0 win over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals.
Paul DeJong's single down the line in left broke up the perfect game and no-hitter with two outs in the seventh.
Kingham (1-0) had nine strikeouts and no walks in reaching 98 pitches -- 72 of them strikes -- and earning the win.
"I just trusted myself," Kingham said. "I went out there, had a lot of things going good for me."
Relievers Michael Feliz and Edgar Santana each pitched an inning to seal the combined three-hit shutout.
Kingham, 26, was a fourth-round draft pick by the Pirates in 2010 and was rated highly as a prospect in the minor leagues, but he had some setbacks -- most notably Tommy John surgery in May 2015 -- that delayed his big league debut.
He was recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis to make a spot start for the Pirates after the rotation got in a jam because of a doubleheader last week. His family watched his debut from the PNC Park stands.
The win was the Pirates' fifth in a row and gave them a three-game series sweep of the Cardinals.
St. Louis starter Luke Weaver (2-2) allowed four runs and six hits in 5 1/3 innings, with six strikeouts and two walks.
The Pirates broke open a scoreless game in the sixth with four runs.
Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Corey Dickerson each reached with one out to load the bases, and Elias Diaz followed with a base hit to bring in Marte and Bell for a 2-0 lead, chasing Weaver.
Colin Moran greeted reliever Jordan Hicks with an RBI single.
After Diaz was out at home on a fielder's choice, Kingham walked to load the bases. Hicks hit Adam Frazier, forcing in a run to make it 4-0.
David Freese added a pinch-hit RBI single in the eighth off reliever Greg Holland for a 5-0 lead.
--Field Level Media
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
St. Louis
|
3 |
0 |
4 |
.103 |
6 |
11 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
Pittsburgh
|
10 |
0 |
10 |
.294 |
16 |
8 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
0 |