The Cardinals Lost Their 40th Game

The Pittsburgh Pirates scored five runs in two innings Tuesday as they defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2.

The Redbirds had a 2-0 lead by the end of the third, but starting pitcher Mike Leake couldn’t preserve it. Pittsburgh’s Josh Harrison and Eric Fryer tied the game with RBI singles in the fifth inning; David Freese and Fryer added three more runs on hits in the sixth. Leake departed after allowing five earned runs and nine hits over six innings.

The Cardinals released Fryer, a catcher, on June 28 in order to activate backup catcher Brayan Peña from the disabled list. Pittsburgh claimed him on July 3, and last night, he was 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Fryer seemed happy with his new team after the game:

Fryer said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told him “it’s just one of those things that had to work out this way.”

“It was nice for him to say it like that, but I’m on to Pittsburgh, I guess,” Fryer said.

The Cardinals are 43-40 and 18-25 at home. There’s always the next game!