ST. LOUIS — They won’t be World Series champions this year, but for the Pirates it’s hardly the same old ship.
“We’re not the laughingstocks of baseball anymore,” Andrew McCutchen said after the Pirates’ 6-1 loss to the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Wednesday. “We’re not that weak team anymore. We’re that team that is going to win more times than not, and it’s great to know that.”
In a season in which the Pirates finished with a winning record for the first time in 20 years, they came within perhaps one big hit of reaching the NLCS. After rookie Michael Wacha dominated the Pirates on Monday, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning in a 2-1 Cardinals victory, Adam Wainwright handled matters Wednesday.
The Pirates took their best shot against the Cardinals ace in the seventh inning, pulling within 3-1 on Pedro Alvarez’s RBI single before Russell Martin left the tying runs on base. The Cardinals then padded their lead over the final two innings.
“We scored two runs in 18 innings, so there is no safety net,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
But Hurdle also could appreciate the manner in which the series was played between these NL Central rivals, who fought back and forth down the stretch for first place in the division. The Cardinals ultimately won that race, leaving the Pirates to need a wild-card round victory over the Reds to reach the NLDS.
“This rivalry has turned into something that baseball can be proud of,” Hurdle said. “It’s become a rivalry for all the right reasons. Professional respect, the way the game is played, the effort. They beat a very good team.”
Alvarez hit three homers in the series and became the first player in major league history to produce an RBI in each of his first six postseason games.
“Our goal has always been to be the last team celebrating on the mound and it got cut short for us this year,” Alvarez said.
But McCutchen, an MVP candidate, accentuated the positives of the season.
“We definitely opened the eyes of a lot of people,” he said. “We can’t let this one game define our year, because it definitely was amazing.”