Alec Burleson's 2 RBIs, Matthew Liberatore's strong start aid Cardinals in win vs. Pirates

Daniel Guerrero, St. Louis Post-Dispatch on May 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — Held scoreless through 5 2/3 innings by Pittsburgh Pirate’s ace Paul Skenes, the St. Louis Cardinals broke through against the hard-throwing righty on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium.

With two outs in the sixth inning, Alec Burleson produced a double down the left field line that scored Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras to lift the cardinals to a 2-1 win that secured a series and notched the Cardinals (18-19) to their fourth consecutive win. Burleson’s double capitalized on a scoring chance set up by a two out single from Arenado and a walk by Contreras.

The two runs lifted the Cardinals to a lead after they trailed by a run in the top half of the sixth inning when Matthew Liberatore had his own stretch of 5 2/3 scoreless innings snapped on a two-out double from Ke’Bryan Hayes.

After allowing the lone run and seeing his offense push two runs across Skenes, Liberatore returned to complete a seventh inning that capped his start after 99 pitches. Liberatore struck out eight batters, walked a season-high three batters and scattered three hits to lower his ERA to 3.07.

Without right-handers Kyle Leahy, Phil Maton and Ryan Helsley available from their bullpen because of their usage in recent days, the Cardinals received a shutdown eighth inning from Steven Matz and gave rookie Gordon Graceffo a chance to save his first big-league game.

The right-hander who was recalled to the majors on Monday pitched 1-2-3 inning to successfully convert on the opportunity.

Burleson gets to Skenes … again

With his club looking to break through against Skenes, Burleson didn’t wait long to push across two runs against Pittsburgh’s ace.

Burleson saw one pitch — a 98.8 mph fastball dotted at the top of the strike zone — and drove it down the left field line for a double that bounced a few feet inside the foul line and rattled in the corner of the outfield wall for Alexander Canario.

Arenado had touched home plate before Canario’s throw reached shortstop Jared Triolo. Contreras scored from first base without a throw.

The RBI double was Burleson’s sixth hit in 15 at-bats against Skenes. That is the most any big-league hitter has against the reigning National League rookie of the year.

A swing-and-miss start

Liberatore needed six pitches to buzz through the first two batters he faced as he retired Oneil Cruz and Bryan Reynolds on back-to-back strikeouts to begin the frame. Liberatore recorded a third strikeout when he got Canario to whiff on a 1-2 slider that stranded Hayes on first and Andrew McCutchen on second base after Hayes singled and McCutchen walked.

McCutchen was one of two Pirates to reach scoring position in Liberatore’s first five innings of work before Cruz stole second base in the sixth inning and scored on the double by Hayes.

Liberatore retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced between from the start of the second inning through the end of the fifth. He recorded four of his eight strikeouts in that span. The lone batter to reach base against Liberatore before Cruz’s walk opened the sixth inning was Henry Davis, who walked to begin the third.

On the night, Liberatore recorded 17 swings-and-misses to Skenes’ 13. Liberatore produced seven whiffs on his fastball, four on his cutter, three on his slider, two with changeups, and one with the five curveballs he threw in the start.

3 free passes to Pittsburgh

Having maintained a rate of 10 strikeouts for every one walk through six starts ahead of Tuesday, Liberatore’s walks to McCutchen, Davis and Cruz left the left-hander with three in the outing, marking a season high. Liberatore had scattered three walks across his first 34 innings.

When he faced Davis in the third inning, Liberatore had Davis in a 1-2 count but had his next three pitches called for balls.

The seventh pitch to Davis, which was a slider, seemingly clipped the top of the strike zone and even led catcher Yohel Pozo to stand and look to throw down to first base so Cardinals infielders could throw the baseball around the infield as typically done for a strikeout with no runners on base. But Pozo stopped his throwing motion as home plate umpire Jansen Visconti called the pitch a ball.

Scott’s streak ends

Victor Scott II’s perfect streak in stolen base attempts to begin the year came to an end in the seventh inning.

In an attempt to steal his 12th base of the season after going 11 for 11 to start the year, Scott’s was nabbed by Davis to end the inning. Before the caught stealing, Scott was the only player across the majors who had double-digit steals and had not been caught yet.

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