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Long Davis homer lifts Pirates over Cardinals 3-1

Sports

August 27th, 2014 by Ric Hanson

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ike Davis hit a two-run homer off a speaker above the seats in right-center field, Jeff Locke outpitched Adam Wainwright and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 Wednesday to close in the NL wild-card race.

Pittsburgh took two of three from the defending NL champions and has won five of seven overall. St. Louis (71-61) leads the NL wild-card race, with San Francisco (69-62) trailing by 1 1/2 games and the Pirates (69-64) one game back of the Giants for the second wild-card berth berth.

Davis hit his 10th homer in the second after Wainwright hit Russell Martin on the left elbow with a pitch that Martin barely tried to avoid. Davis sent an 88 mph pitch clanking off a speaker raised on a pole, about 15 feet above the seats, a drive estimated at about 433 feet. A night earlier, Davis had a pinch-hit, tiebreaking, three-run homer in the eighth inning of Pittsbugh’s 5-2 win.

Davis also had an inning-ending lineout that left the bases loaded in the fifth.