Billy Cook hits first career home run

ST. LOUIS — While the Pirates will not be participating in this upcoming postseason, these last two weeks of the season can offer a glimpse of what the future could hold. On Wednesday night, that future looked bright even as the Bucs dropped a third straight game to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, 10-5.

Rookies Billy Cook and Nick Yorke spearheaded a rally from a four-run deficit as the Pirates took a short-lived 5-4 lead.

Cook hit his first Major League home run, a three-run laser over the right-field wall, off Matthew Liberatore to give the Pirates a 5-4 lead in the sixth. Cook also had a single in the ninth.

“Just went up and said, ‘Hey, relax a little more, you know, see what happens,’” Cook said. “And just put it in play.”

Pirates manager Derek Shelton said the timing of the homer, with two outs and facing a fresh reliever, made it more impressive.

“It was big situation,” Shelton said. “We’ve been looking for a big hit over the last few days, and we got it right there, and we just were not able to hold on.”

“Billy had two hits, Nick continues to swing about well, had good at-bats,” Shelton said. “That’s very encouraging for us. I mean, these are guys we acquired, and I think, like we’ve said, we’re going to get a look at over the last 10 days, and you know, both of them had good nights tonight.”

Yorke become the first Pirate since Oneil Cruz to have two multi-hit games in the first three games of their career.

Cook and Yorke have formed a bond, having been teammates at Triple-A and being called up to the big leagues one week apart.

“We’re kind of in it together,” Cook said. “We stick together, maybe a little too much sometimes in the locker room or whatever, but yeah, definitely a great guy to hang around, and I’m excited to be a teammate with him for a long time.”

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Andrew McCutchen, Gonzales, Yorke, Jared Triolo and Cook all had multihit games for Pittsburgh.

Pirates starter Jake Woodford, facing the team he broke into the Majors with for the first time, allowed four runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter.

Brendan Donovan hit a two-run homer for the Cardinals in the second. Paul Goldschmidt had an RBI triple and Nolan Arenado followed with an RBI single in the third to make it 4-0.

“I felt like I executed a lot of good pitches,” Woodford said. “I got clipped for the homer, and then the inning after that, I felt like there was just some stuff that fell and, you know, just didn’t go my way. But I thought I did, like, a good job of battling and sticking to it and giving them a little bit of length.”

The Cardinals exploded for six runs against the Pirates bullpen in the seventh. Masyn Winn hit a solo homer, Iván Herrera and Lars Nootbaar each drove in a run with bases-loaded singles and Jordan Walker cleared the bases with a three-run double.

David Bednar (3-8) allowed three runs (two earned) and Jalen Beeks allowed the other three runs.

“We can’t put guys on base,” Shelton said. “We can’t give free passes. I mean, we had an error in that inning too, which hurt us, but we cannot give away outs or put guys on base when you know they’re not getting base hits.”

The loss ensures that the Pirates will finish .500 or worse for the 28th time since 1992, but that’s a stat the team’s youth hopes to change quickly.

“I’m very excited about it,” Cook said. “You know, we have a lot of key parts that are going to fit well next year, and I think you’re getting taste of that right now. … So, just making sure that everybody’s getting the experience, so that next year, you know, you have the vet guys and the younger guys, and hopefully you can’t tell the difference, and that’s what it’ll take to be a good team.”