PITTSBURGH — Michael Wacha’s latest flirtation with history took him to the Pirates’ 24th batter Monday at PNC Park.
But the 22-year-old Cardinals rookie again had to settle for thumps on the back and handshakes instead of a full hero’s treatment. Pedro Alvarez crushed a 93 mph fastball from Wacha straight toward the Clemente Bridge in the eighth inning for a home run, giving the Pirates their first hit, but not enough thunder to overtake the Cardinals.
Wacha’s one-hitter over 7 ¹/₃ innings propelled the Cardinals to a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the NL Division Series, setting up a winner-take-all on Wednesday in St. Louis. The Cardinals will have the momentum, with ace Adam Wainwright set to face rookie Gerrit Cole.
In his final start of the regular season, on Sept. 24 against the Nationals, Wacha lost a no-hitter in the ninth on Ryan Zimmerman’s infield single with two outs.
“I just kind of took the confidence from the last start into this one,” Wacha said. “And then whenever I went back and looked at the film, I was able to see some of the positives from the game, and one of them was just getting ahead of the hitters and being able to make my pitch instead of making their pitch.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wacha’s no-hit bid was the longest by a rookie in postseason history.
Only two pitchers have thrown a postseason no-hitter. The Yankees’ Don Larsen pitched a perfect game against the Dodgers in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series and the Phillies’ Roy Halladay fired a no-hitter against the Reds in Game 1 of the 2010 NLDS.
“This place was loud,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “The kid [Wacha] stayed the course. He trusted himself. He trusted his catcher and the game plan. Then it comes down to execution, and it was impressive to watch how he executed today.”
Wacha retired the first 15 batters he faced before Russell Martin walked leading off the sixth. But the right-hander regrouped to retire the next three batters in the inning, two of them by strikeout. In the seventh, the Pirates were retired in order, and Wacha struck out Marlon Byrd to begin the eighth. But Alvarez then crushed a 3-1 pitch for his third home run of the series. Wacha, who struck out nine and walked two, remained in the game to face one more batter and walked Martin.
“We weren’t able to get anybody on and get any motion created,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “That is some kind of postseason outing for a young man in his first postseason game.”
The Pirates gambled on the bases in the eighth, when pinch-runner Josh Harrison was thrown out by Yadier Molina attempting to steal second base. Carlos Martinez then struck out Jose Tabata to end the inning.
In the ninth, Neil Walker walked against Trevor Rosenthal with two outs before MVP candidate Andrew McCutchen was retired to end the game.
“I didn’t like giving up the home run — that’s a little too close to comfort for me,” Wacha said. “But Carlos came in and Trevor came in and shut the door. It was a lot of fun watching them.”
Matt Holliday’s two-run homer in the sixth against Charlie Morton broke the scoreless deadlock. It was the first real contribution in the series from Holliday, who entered batting .167 in the NLDS with no RBIs.
Carlos Beltran walked for the second time in the game to begin the inning before Holliday slugged a 2-2 pitch over the fence in left-center.
“Once we scored those two runs, I just had a feeling that was going to be enough,” Beltran said. “We’re going to go home and have our best pitcher on the mound, our ace, and I like our chances.”
Morton, who pitched to a 7.90 ERA in three starts against the Cardinals this season, lasted 5 ²/₃ innings and allowed two runs on three hits and four walks.
“I think the cowboys say he drew a tough bull today,” Hurdle said. “He navigated through their lineup extremely efficiently.”