For all the ways that I've been projecting that this team would need to forget about the Philadelphia weekend, forget about Ryan O'Hern being hurt, I really didn't think the manager would be a factor. Good morning to you. Good. Wednesday morning,

I'm Dan Kovachovic of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports, and this is Daily Shot of Pirates. It comes your way

break in early every weekday. It's brought to you by our friends at the North Shore Tavern,

home of Steak on a Stone. If you happen to be into football and or hockey, I also offer daily shots of Steelers

and Penguins in the same place that you found this. Cardinals 9, Pirates 6 last night in St. Louis.

Generally speaking, a baseball story will be best told by either the very end or something

that had a dramatic influence at the start. This one was neither, at least not as I saw it. In this

one, the Pirates had taken a four-to-three lead on a really nice all-around rally in the fifth

inning, big hits from Brian Reynolds,

O'Neill Cruz. Mitch Keller goes out in the bottom half and does exactly what you want a

professional to do, and that's to hang a zero up. He did that. One, two, three. Mitch is back out

there for the sixth. He gets a couple more outs wrapped around.

A hit batsman for Alec Berluson.

No big deal, right?

His pitch counts at 83.

It's not much of a threat.

Like, if you can call it a threat at all, it's the sixth inning.

There's two outs and a man on first. And why is Don Kelly coming

out of the... What, no way. Why? Seriously. Well, he's just going to say something. He's not

going to take the... He took the ball! And off came Mitch, and out beyond the centerfield fence,

went Nolan Gorman with a two-run home run off Evan Sisk. Just like that, St. Louis is back on top.

Why did Kelly make that move? Jose Negron, our beat reporter for

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