The Pittsburgh Pirates found themselves shell-shocked by the more experienced St. Louis Cardinals in the ballclub's first-ever National League Division Series game in more than 20 years. On Friday, the Bucs will try to draw it even at 1-1 when they take on the Cards the second time around at Busch Stadium.
Coming off a 9-1 beating at the hands of the Cardinals, the Pirates will lean on starting pitcher rookie Gerrit Cole in what could be a pivotal Game 2 of the best-of-five series.
Cole, who went 10-7 with a 3.22 ERA and 100 strikeouts this season, will now try to solve the Cardinals' explosive batting unit led by David Freese and Carlos Beltran (.783) who has just surpassed baseball legend Babe Ruth (.744) for the highest slugging percentage in postseason history.
Beltran pulled off a three-run homer to ignite a seven-run onslaught in the third inning while Freese added two runs for the Cardinals, who continued to dominate the Pirates this year.
"I know that -- facing (Matt) Carpenter, Beltran, (Yadier) Molina, (Matt) Holliday, Freese, (Jon) Jay -- they're just great hitters," Cole told ESPN before Friday's Game 2. "Whether you've seen them a bunch of times or not, you know what they're capable of doing. You know in a playoff atmosphere anything can happen."
The Cards outscored the Pirates 42-13 over the last five meetings and manager Mike Matheny will look to sustain this momentum as the series progresses.
"To be able to get out on a good first step and play well today I think is big for our guys confidence-wise." Matheny said. "Gives us an opportunity to just take some momentum, and momentum is big right now when you talk about a five-game series."
The Cardinals will be fielding Lance Lynn who finished the season on solid note by going 2-0 with a 1.09 ERA and 30 strikeouts in his last four starts of the regular-season.
"To be here at this time, you know what it's all about," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's regular season, postseason, whatever it may be. You're just thinking about one thing, and that is getting the job done for your team and giving them a chance to win."
Pirates' sluggers Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez are expected to lead the charge in Game 2 following their team's flat performance in the series opener.
Live Stream & Schedule
TV Schedule
You can catch Game 2 of NLDS between the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals on Friday at 1:07 p.m EST on MLB Network.
Live Stream (video)
Live stream coverage can be seen on MLB.tv.
Live Stream (audio)
Live stream coverage can be heard MLB.com Gameday Audio.
Live Score
Live scores could be followed by clicking here.