The Pirates lost to the Reds 10-6 on Saturday afternoon on Ramon Santiago’s tenth-inning walk-off grand slam. That meant that the Cardinals went into their evening match-up against the Diamondbacks with the ability to clinch the NL Central with a win.
The Cardinals were unable to take care of business. D-Backs first baseman Mark Trumbo did nearly all of the damage, homering twice and knocking in four, including a tie-breaking three-run jack in the seventh inning. The Cardinals mustered only two third-inning runs off of Wade Miley. As a result, the NL Central remains undecided going into the final day of the regular season.
If the Pirates win and the Cardinals lose on Sunday afternoon, they will tie with an 89-73 record and force a Game 163 tie-breaker to be played on Monday. Alternatively, either a Pirates loss or a Cardinals win will clinch the NL Central for the club from St. Louis.
Here’s what’s going on Sunday afternoon:
- Pirates @ Reds, 1:10 PM ET (Gerrit Cole vs. Johnny Cueto)
- Cardinals @ Diamondbacks, 4:10 PM ET (Adam Wainwright vs. Josh Collmenter)
