ST. LOUIS – Mired in a miserable power outage over the first six weeks of the season, Alec Burleson has heated up at just the right time for the suddenly surging Cardinals.
Burleson’s recent hot streak isn’t something unfamiliar to Pirates star Paul Skenes, who has uncharacteristically struggled to retire the Cardinals’ crafty left-handed hitter even while featuring some of the best stuff in the big leagues.
Burleson, who came into Tuesday having hit his only two home runs of the season over the previous two nights after working for weeks to better drive the baseball, drilled a double down the left field line for his sixth career hit against Skenes to score two as the Cardinals rallied past the Pirates 2-1 at Busch Stadium.
Burleson improved to 6-for-15 with four RBIs against Skenes. No other MLB player has more than four hits against the right-hander.
“There is no secret; it takes a little luck I feel like, and with a guy like him, you have to have a plan and stick to it for three or four at-bats,” said Burleson, who shot Skenes’ 98.8 mph four-seam fastball down the left field line to plate Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras and wipe out a 1-0 deficit. “That [plan] may not necessarily give you success that night, but it gives you the best chance for success. That’s what I did, and it worked out at a good time.”
Incredibly, the Cardinals beat Skenes (3-4) for the fourth time in his 31-start MLB career, making them the only MLB team with multiple wins over the 22-year-old superstar. The reigning National League Rookie of the Year and All-Star Game starter came into Tuesday 14-6 with a 2.15 ERA, but half of those six defeats had come against the Redbirds. The 6-foot-6 Skenes allowed a career-high five runs in six innings in a 5-3 loss to the Cardinals on April 8.
“It’s a tough one because Skenes is really good, man,” Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol said of the Pirates star who struck out six but walked four. “He’s really good and he was good tonight. We were able to get him there at the end, but he pitched a helluva game.”
The same could be said of blossoming Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, who limited the Pirates to three hits and one run over seven innings. He struck out the side in the first inning and had a career-high-tying eight punchouts for the night. Most importantly, he shut down the Pirates in the seventh after Burleson gave the Cards the lead in the sixth.
“I’m not sure where the extra life came from [on his fastball], but it was there tonight and it held through the whole game,” said Liberatore, who has pitched at least six innings in every outing this season not shortened by rain. “I kind of felt like I had everything working from the first pitch, and I was able to hold onto that through the seventh. I feel like I had a lot of weapons at my disposal tonight and I executed a lot of pitches.”
The Cardinals won a fourth straight game and improved to 14-6 at Busch Stadium. Their 14 home wins are tied for the second most in MLB, trailing only the Dodgers’ 15.
A Cardinals team that started the season 0-5 in one-run games won its fifth straight one-run game on Tuesday. One reason was the bullpen work of rookie Gordon Graceffo, the Cardinals' No. 16 prospect, who filled in for unavailable All-Star closer Ryan Helsley and notched the first save of his MLB career. It’s been quite a six-day stretch for the rapidly blossoming Graceffo, who earned his first MLB win last Wednesday in Cincinnati.
“Yeah, it’s been unreal,” said Graceffo, a starter throughout his high school, college and Minor League career, who said he doesn’t remember the last time he pitched in games on consecutive nights. “It’s all happened so fast and I’m still trying to soak it in. But it’s been an incredible couple of days, and it’s been nice sharing it with my teammates and my family. I’m just looking forward to what’s coming next.”
Burleson came alive in 2024 after a slow start, and he seems to be following a similar course this year. After recording just two extra-base hits in his first 82 at-bats of the season, Burleson has three extra-base hits – two homers and Tuesday’s game-winning double – in his last 11 at-bats.
“Over the past week, I’ve been hitting the ball a lot harder in the air,” said Burleson, who had the longest homer of the season by a Cardinal [435 feet] on Monday. “But it’s been good to be able to lift the ball with ease without really trying to. I just want to hit the ball hard every time.”