Spencer Horwitz’s sacrifice fly in the eighth drove in the go-ahead run, and Paul Skenes concluded his season with a quality start as the Pittsburgh Pirates wrapped up their home schedule with a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday afternoon.
Horwitz’s fly ball to center was deep enough to allow Ronny Simon to score. Mason Montgomery recorded his 17th save after pitching a scoreless ninth and helping Pittsburgh (81-77) finish .500 or better for the first time since 2018.
The Cardinals (77-82) are guaranteed to finish with back-to-back losing seasons for the first time since 1994-95.
St. Louis reliever Ryne Stanek (2-3) walked Simon with one out. A wild pitch and a throwing error by catcher Ivan Herrera as Simon was advancing to second allowed him to reach third, setting up Horwitz’s RBI.
Skenes tossed 6 1/3 innings, struck out eight, walked two and allowed one run on three hits. His final strikeout of Leo Bernal was his 200th for the season and came on his 96th pitch. Skenes became the second Pirates pitcher ever to record 200-plus strikeouts in back-to-back seasons, joining Bob Veale (three straight from 1964-66).
Skenes, the National League’s Cy Young Award winner last season, struggled at times but finished his 2026 campaign with a 10-11 record and a 3.82 ERA in 32 starts. He allowed one earned run or fewer in 14 of those starts.
Alec Burleson belted a solo home run — his 24th of the season — off Skenes with two outs in the first inning.
Pittsburgh answered in the bottom of the first as Oneil Cruz led off with a double, stole third and scored on an RBI single by Brandon Lowe. Cruz and Konnor Griffin each finished with two hits.
The Pirates’ bullpen kept the Cardinals scoreless the rest of the way with Luke Weaver (4-1) striking out Jordan Walker to get Pittsburgh out of a jam in the top of the eighth inning. St. Louis had runners on first and second on one-out singles by JJ Wetherholt and Herrera.
Wetherholt led the Cardinals at the plate with two hits, including a double.
