ARCHIVE April 30, 2026
April 30, 2026 · NL Cent

St. Louis Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Pirates

April 30, 2026PNC ParkPartly Cloudy 46°F · 11 mph, Out To CF
AWAY
St. Louis Cardinals
18-13
10
vs
HOME
Pittsburgh Pirates
16-16
5

Starting pitchers

AWAY · STL
Hunter Dobbins
Hunter Dobbins
IP 4.1
HOME · PIT
Paul Skenes
Paul Skenes
IP 5

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 LF
  8. 8 Pedro Pagés C
  9. 9 Victor Scott II CF
HOME · PIT
  1. 1 Oneil Cruz CF
  2. 2 Brandon Lowe 2B
  3. 3 Bryan Reynolds RF
  4. 4 Ryan O'Hearn DH
  5. 5 Nick Gonzales 3B
  6. 6 Spencer Horwitz 1B
  7. 7 Konnor Griffin SS
  8. 8 Jake Mangum LF
  9. 9 Henry Davis C

Box score

  123456789 R
STL 301010050 10
PIT 000120101 5

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
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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 +0.04 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 3.53 vs actual lineup 3.49
  • Player execution +6.51 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 3.49 projection by 6.51 (scored 10)
  • Game variance +6.47 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Pagés 2-for-5 from the 8-hole

HOME · Pittsburgh Pirates
  • Manager lineup cost +0.02 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.86 vs actual lineup 4.84
  • Player execution +0.16 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.84 projection by 0.16 (scored 5)
  • Game variance +0.14 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

O'Hearn 0-for-4 batting 4th

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 3.5 – 4.9 — actual was 10 – 5.

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.