ARCHIVE April 27, 2026
April 27, 2026 · NL Cent

St. Louis Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Pirates

April 27, 2026PNC ParkPartly Cloudy 72°F · 10 mph, In From CF
AWAY
St. Louis Cardinals
15-13
4
vs
HOME
Pittsburgh Pirates
16-13
2

Starting pitchers

AWAY · STL
Dustin May
Dustin May
IP 6
HOME · PIT
Wilber Dotel
Wilber Dotel
IP 4

Lineups

AWAY · STL
  1. 1 JJ Wetherholt 2B
  2. 2 Iván Herrera DH
  3. 3 Alec Burleson 1B
  4. 4 Jordan Walker RF
  5. 5 Nolan Gorman 3B
  6. 6 Masyn Winn SS
  7. 7 Nathan Church CF
  8. 8 Thomas Saggese LF
  9. 9 Pedro Pagés C
HOME · PIT
  1. 1 Spencer Horwitz 1B
  2. 2 Brandon Lowe 2B
  3. 3 Bryan Reynolds LF
  4. 4 Ryan O'Hearn RF
  5. 5 Marcell Ozuna DH
  6. 6 Nick Gonzales 3B
  7. 7 Konnor Griffin SS
  8. 8 Jake Mangum CF
  9. 9 Henry Davis C

Box score

  123456789 R
STL 000000004 4
PIT 110000000 2

Manager comparison

Both managers grade B- / C- entering this matchup.

AWAY · STL
Oliver Marmol
B- Lineup 1.2 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.3 R
HOME · PIT
Don Kelly
C- Lineup 2.3 R Bunts 0.3 R IBBs 0.8 R

Recent form

AWAY · STL
7-2 W1 +13 run diff
WL?WLWWWWW
HOME · PIT
5-5 W2 +1 run diff
WWLWWWLLLL

Season series: 4-0 with STL listed first across 4 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · St. Louis Cardinals
  • Manager lineup cost +0.12 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 2.45 vs actual lineup 2.33
  • Player execution +1.67 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 2.33 projection by 1.67 (scored 4)
  • Game variance +1.55 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Pagés HR from the 9-hole

HOME · Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Manager lineup cost +0.06 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.84 vs actual lineup 4.78
  • Player execution −2.78 R/G Players fell 2.78 short of the lineup's 4.78 projection (scored 2)
  • Game variance −2.84 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Lowe 0-for-3 batting 2nd

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 2.5 – 4.8 — actual was 4 – 2.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.