Mired in an ugly skid where he failed to get a hit in 15 at bats, Cardinals’ first baseman Alec Burleson ended his personal drought in the weirdest of ways back on Monday night.
Burleson squibbed a 55.7 mph spinner to third for an infield single and he playfully celebrated the moment by extending his arms outward like an umpire to pronounce himself safe. Just for good measure, Burleson came back in his next at bat on Monday with another 57.5 mph spinner that remarkably started found, but spun along the third base line for another hit.
Little did the Cardinals or Burleson know it at the time, but the two softly hit singles ignited something within the sweet-swinging lefty’s game and finally got him swinging a hot bat again.
A night after doubling and driving in three runs on Tuesday, Burleson crushed a 411-foot, opposite-field homer to lift the Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Pirates.
The Cardinals survived a major scare in the ninth inning when Nick Gonzalez drilled a ball to the left field wall where outfielder Nathan Church robbed another potential homer. Church, one of the Cards’ biggest surprises so far, has already robbed two homers this season.
“That was kind of scary because I thought that ball was going to go out,” catcher Ivan Herrera said to Cardinals.TV after notching a double, an infield single and an RBI in the win. “It was such a good game and we were playing hard, but I thought that ball was gone. But we have Church out there who makes all those big plays easily.”
The victory, combined with Monday’s comeback thriller and Tuesday’s 11-7 win, allowed the Cardinals to secure a series win over their NL Central Division rivals. Also, the win allowed the Cards to respond to their four-game losing streak and a sweep at the hands of the Mariners with a three-game winning streak.
JoJo Romero and George Soriano pitched well in relief after more struggles from Ryne Stanek to let the Pirates back into the game. Riley O’Brien pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his eighth save.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s win for the Cards:
Cardinals’ right-hander Andre Pallante not failed to win any of his final 10 starts of 2025, but he entered 2026 riding an unsightly eight-game losing streak.
After an offseason of reflection and refining his changeup and slider, Pallante looks like a completely different pitcher in 2026.
Pallante limited the Pirates to five hits and one earned run over a season-high six innings to win for the third time this season. Coming off an eight-strikeout game against the Mariners last week, Pallante struck out another six hitters on Wednesday.
“Really nice job by him and the fastball played well and he broke some bats,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said of Pallante to Cardinals.TV. “With his curveball, he continued to throw it even if he wasn’t landing it. The slider was a good pitch, and he gave us a good look today with no walks. It was a solid outing.”
Hometown hero JJ Wetherholt, who was playing in front of his high school baseball team, had a third-inning double to drive in Ramon Urias for the game’s first run. Wetherholt, one of the heroes from Monday’s improbable win with his tying homer, had two doubles in the game.
Coming off a Tuesday game where he doubled twice, Burleson had the biggest swing of the night on Wednesday. He jumped all over Bubba Chadler’s 88.7 mph slider in the middle of the plate, driving it the other way and just over the wall in the deepest part of the park. Burleson’s fourth homer of the season left the bat at 108.4 mph and gave him the team lead in RBI with 22.
BURLY BARREL IN THE RAIN! 💥 pic.twitter.com/4igst2DtnH
“The rest of the middle (of the lineup) did their jobs,” Marmol said. “All the way around, solid jobs.”
The Cardinals signed veteran reliever Ryne Stanek over the winter for the experience that he could bring and to be a bridge between the starters and late-innings relievers JoJo Romero and close Riley O’Brien. However, the hard-throwing right-hander continues to struggle – largely because of his struggles to find the strike zone.
Stanek started the seventh by getting Spencer Horowitz to tap back to the mound. However, he then sandwiched walks to Konnor Griffin and Oneil Cruz around a single by Jake Mangum. Romero relieved and surrendered a single to Nick Yorke and the two runs scored were charged to Stanek.
Following a walk to Bryan Reynolds, Romero struck out Nick O’Hearn on a check swing and he got Marcel Ozuna to ground out to third to end the Pittsburgh rally.