Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Bryan Reynolds lost a ball in the lights in the eighth inning Thursday afternoon at PNC Park, and the St. Louis Cardinals turned the play into the opening of a 10-5 win. What could have been the first out of the inning instead dropped in front of Reynolds in right field, and the one-run game quickly unraveled.
Masyn Winn sent a liner directly toward Reynolds, but the ball fell untouched and the Cardinals kept the inning alive. Reynolds was not charged with an error, yet the miss changed the game immediately. St. Louis scored after the play and moved from a one-run edge to a blowout before Pittsburgh could stop the surge.
The Pirates had briefly pulled within one on a Brandon Lowe home run, but the momentum lasted only a moment. Nathan Church followed the missed chance with a two-run double, Alec Burleson added a two-run single and Jordan Walker later drove in another run as the Cardinals kept piling on in the eighth.
Reynolds said afterward that the stadium lights impacted his vision on the play, and manager Don Kelly backed him up by suggesting the lighting played a major factor. The explanation mattered because Pittsburgh’s outfield defense already ranked at minus-4 Outs Above Average before Thursday, with only the Philadelphia Phillies worse in the National League. That was one more reason the Pirates could not afford a breakdown when their offense was already struggling to consistently score runs.
Pittsburgh can survive cold stretches at the plate. It cannot survive that kind of offensive inconsistency paired with shaky defense. The miss in right field did not decide the season, but it did show how thin the margin is for a team that has to play cleaner than this to stay in games.