The St. Louis Cardinals are hoping to pick up where they left off when they host the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second game of their four-game series on Friday night.
The Cardinals erupted for 17 runs in the series opener on Thursday night, all without the benefit of a home run.
The last team to score at least 17 runs without a home run was the Colorado Rockies in a 17-8 win against the San Francisco Giants on April 11, 2012.
Cardinals outfielder Dexter Fowler had three hits and two runs scored for the Rockies in that game, and he had two hits and three RBIs on Thursday.
St. Louis first baseman Paul Goldschmidt went 3-for-5 in the series opener with his first RBI since April 23 and first extra-base hit since April 24.
He came in hitting .136 in his previous 11 games with one walk and 16 strikeouts in that span.
“There’s going to be ups and downs,” Goldschmidt told reporters on Wednesday night. “You understand that, but you don’t want to get complacent and just act like, ‘Hey everything is OK.’ ”
Goldschmidt said he has kept his focus on the elements of the game he can control.
“You’re looking for ways to be better,” he said. “Sometimes, there are adjustments to be made, but the stuff I can control, swinging at the right pitches and hitting them hard, I haven’t done a good enough job with that.”
St. Louis will send right-hander Adam Wainwright to the mound for his eighth start of the season.
Wainwright (3-3, 4.71) hasn’t gone seven innings since April 11, 2018, when he went seven in a 3-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Wainwright is 13-7 in his career against the Pirates with a 4.45 ERA.
He faced them in his season opener on April 1 and gave up four runs and four hits in four innings in the 6-5 win. It remains his only start in which he did not earn a decision this season.
Trevor Williams is scheduled to start on the mound for the Pirates.
Williams (1-1, 3.74) faced the Cardinals six times last season and went 2-2 with a 4.94 ERA.
He’s 3-4 overall against the Cardinals in his career with a 6.10 ERA in 12 appearances, including nine starts.
Cardinals leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter is 8-for-19 in his career off Williams with three home runs. Carpenter is also coming off of his most productive game of the season, collecting two hits and two walks, scoring three runs and driving in another on Thursday.
Williams has pitched at least six innings in all seven starts, but has just two decisions.
He went six innings against the visiting Oakland A’s on Saturday, allowing four runs and eight hits, but left trailing 4-3 before the Pirates scored three runs in the seventh in the 6-4 win.
The Pirates called up relief pitcher Montana DuRapau from Triple-A Indianapolis and he threw two innings of relief in his major league debut Thursday, allowing one run and three hits.
DuRapau, a former 32nd-round draft pick of Pittsburgh, had struck out 18 in 14 1/3 innings at Indianapolis, owned a 0.63 ERA and held opponents to a .111 average.
“He’s been as effective as maybe any pitcher that we’ve brought up in recent memory, as far as statistical numbers,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “He has just continued to get outs throughout his minor league career.”