None of that mattered once the bats went quiet and the gloves started deciding it instead.
Kyle Crooks' third-inning homer was the only extra-base swing of the night, and St. Louis tacked on a sacrifice-fly run the next inning to make it 3-0 before Pittsburgh answered. But the Pirates did as much to lose it as the Cardinals did to win it — Pittsburgh committed 3 errors, including a shortstop throw that let St. Louis add an unearned run in the 8th, while Jared Triolo's fifth-inning single was the only run the visitors could scratch across all night.
The injury lists explain a lot about why both teams look like this in late August. St. Louis has been without Winn, Pereira and third baseman Blaze Jordan for stretches, and manager Oliver Marmol has openly framed the second half as player evaluation over playoff push. Pittsburgh's issue runs deeper — ace Mitch Keller has been out since early August with a torn teres major, and the rotation has posted a 5.42 ERA since the All-Star break, the single biggest reason a team that sat 50-47 at the break has cratered since.
Neither club is playing for much beyond development at this point, but St. Louis at least heads into the stretch having won its last game before this one; Pittsburgh has now lost more than it's won since the break, and Saturday's sloppy finish did nothing to change that trend.