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PITTSBURGH -- Down to his final strike and his team trailing by a run with two outs in the ninth, St. Louis pinch-hitter Matt Carpenter told himself to just find a pitch he could handle.When the fastball from closer Tony Watson ended up right down the middle and not up and away as Watson hoped, Carpenter pounced. His solo homer -- a major league record 15th by a St. Louis pinch-hitter this season -- tied it and sent a jolt through the Cardinals. A home run each from Randal Grichuk and Jhonny Peralta followed, and St. Louis rallied for a stunning 9-7 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.Weve got a team that I think the best way to describe it is a dangerous team, Carpenter said. Weve got a team that I dont think anybody wants to match up with, especially in a postseason scenario. Its a fun team to play on. We never quit, and tonight was a good example of it.St. Louis blew an early five-run lead and the Pirates were a pitch away from ending a seven-game losing streak when Watsons 0-2 fastball turned into Carpenters 18th home run. An All-Star two years ago as a setup man who moved into the closer role when Mark Melancon was traded to Washington at the deadline, Watson gave up as many homers in the ninth as he did during the entire 2015 season.Were not playing good ball and to go out there and (have) guys fight back and be a strike away and serve up four more runs, its tough to swallow, Watson (2-4) said after his third blown save since replacing Melancon.Yadier Molina went 4 for 5, including a first-inning grand slam for St. Louis. Mike Mayers (1-1) tossed a scoreless eighth for the win, and Seung-Hwan Oh worked around a solo homer to Jung Ho Kang in the ninth for his 16th save.The Cardinals finished with five home runs in all, including Matt Adams 436-foot drive over the seats in right field that plopped into the Allegheny River on the bounce. The comeback allowed St. Louis to remain a game in front of the New York Mets for the second wild card in the National League.Im speechless, St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. Just, I love how this team competes, right down to the last out. Having a guy like (Carpenter), who hadnt felt quite right, to be able to come into that situation, and then right after that ... Im at a loss.Jung Ho Kang had two homers for Pittsburgh and Jordy Mercer hit a two-run double in the fifth as the Pirates took advantage of some sloppy defense by the Cardinals to overcome an early five-run deficit. Watsons implosion, however, sent Pittsburgh to its eighth straight defeat.The Pirates came in reeling during their longest skid in two years, one that dropped them to the fringe of playoff contention. Opponents have outscored them 47-22 during the slide, including a 12-6 setback on Monday night in which the Cardinals simply overpowered Pittsburghs struggling pitching staff.It looked like more of the same early on Tuesday. The Cardinals loaded the bases against Ryan Vogelsong and Molina cleared them with his first grand slam since 2012, the 25th straight game the Cardinals have homered, a club record.MARTINEZ FINALLY ARRIVESSt. Louis rookie outfielder Jose Martinez made his long-awaited major league debut when he entered as a pinch-hitter in the seventh. The 28-year-old son of former major leaguer Carlos Cafe Martinez grounded out to third in his first plate appearance after more than a decade in the minors.It was good to see him get that chance, Matheny said. This is a good day for him. Long time coming.TRAINING ROOMCardinals: RF Stephen Piscotty was initially held out of the lineup to give his aching left wrist a breather. Piscotty took a pitch off the wrist on Monday. Postgame X-rays were negative and Piscotty doubled as a pinch-hitter in the eighth.Pirates: Pittsburgh held C Francisco Cervelli out of the lineup a day after he experienced discomfort in his left hand trying to block a pitch.UP NEXTCardinals: Mike Leake returns to the rotation after a stay on the disabled list while battling a case of the shingles. Leake is 9-5 with a 3.28 ERA in his career against Pittsburgh but is 1-2 with a 5.71 ERA this season.Pirates: Rookie Jameson Taillon will face the Cardinals for the first time in the series finale. The 24-year-old has a 2.80 ERA over his last 10 starts and pitched six innings of one-run ball last week against Milwaukee.Miami Marlins Shirts .C. -- Glenn Howard needed an extra end to move into the Masters Grand Slam of Curling final. Miami Marlins Store . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. https://www.cheapmarlinsjerseys.us/ . Manuel was offered a position the day he was fired. He accepted earlier this week and the team made the announcement Friday. Fake Marlins Jerseys . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Cheap Marlins Jerseys . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Fog prevented downhill racers from getting their Olympic dress rehearsal.The Bottom 10 inspirational thought of the week:They met on the dance floor in the old high school gym, He fell like a rock, she kinda liked him. And his heart beat like thunder, as they moved cross the floor, When the music was over, she slipped out of his arms, and out the door.So close, yet so far away. So close, yet so far away. We believe in tomorrow, maybe more than today. Were so close, so close, yet so far away.-- So Close, Hall & OatesHere at Bottom 10 headquarters, located in the guest room of the penthouse Brent Musburger rents to store all of his old network blazers, we do a lot of looking live, but were not usually looking live at the games to which the rest of the nation is looking live.Thusly, on Saturday we were honed in on Rutgers at Minnesota. Thats where the Scarlet Knights had trailed 21-0 in the first quarter, but stormed back with a chance to tie the game at 24-24 midway through the third quarter ... but missed the PAT. Then they had a chance to tie the game at 31-31 early in the fourth ... but failed on the two-point conversion. Then they finally took the lead 32-31 with four minutes remaining ... but surrendered a 13-play, 59-yard drive. In the middle of it all was a backbreaker third-and-1 play when the Gophers ball carrier looked stopped, but spun and spun and spun like the + button on his controller was stuck ... and he broke a 9-yard run to set up the game winning field goal with 6 seconds left to play.So close, yet so far away.Seeking some sort of writerly symmetry, I reached out to the man who wrote those lyrics. Daryl Hall was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, became famous in Philadelphia and currently resides in New York. A life lived within the gravitational pull of Rutgers. So surely he could relate, right? Mr. Hall politely requests you get off of his property, said a security officer at the gate of Daryls house, where I could hear him singing with, I think it was Michael McDonald. Mr. Hall says to tell you the rules are the same here as they were that time you jumped onto his bus outside of Dorton Arena in Raleigh in 1986. You creep him out. Go away.So close, yet so far away.With apologies to Oates and Steve Harvey, heres this weeks Bottom 10.1. FA(not I)U?(1-6)The Owls stumbled against the Fightin Byes of Open Date U. after officials called for a late clock runoff. This week its a visit from Western Kentucky, which according to the mysteriously accurate ESPN Stats & Information department FPI formula has an 86.5 percent chance of winning. In a related note, that same FPI formula gives our Bottom 10 Stats & Info department a 1.2 percent chance of understanding how the FPI formula works.2. Rice (1-6) Speaking of FPI, why are we even wasting it on games that dont matter? Because here at Bottom 10 HQ theres only one game that matters, and thats the Nov. 5 Pillow Fight of the Century, aka the Owl Bowl, when FA(not I)U visits Rice. As of right now, FFPI says Rice has the edge with a 62 percent chance of winning, but also says that the rest of us have a 100.dddddddddddd.8 percent chance of winning simply because the game is being played.3. Buffalo Bulls not Bills?(1-6) Should either of the Owls get their acts together, the MAC East stands ready to fill the breach. Or spill the bleach. The first round of the one-and-somethings MACtion bunkhouse stampede got underway last weekend when previously 13th-ranked one-win NIU housed previously eighth-ranked one-win Buffalo 44-7.4. Bowling Green (1-7) Meanwhile, previously seventh-ranked one-win Bowling Green lost to previously 12th-ranked one-win My Hammy of Ohio 40-26. Now currently fourth-ranked one-win Bowling Green will travel to currently 16th-ranked two-win NIU, but not until next week on the night after Halloween.5. Houston (6-2)How was the week in Houston? To quote Ricky Bobby, Well, lets see. I got mauled by a cougar ... Wait, I am a cougar. ... I got mauled by a Mustang, I didnt get invited to join the Big 12, and my Crystal Gayle shirt is ruined. Other than that, it was great.6. Fres-no State (1-7) Its Pitchfork Season in the Bottom 10 and the latest team to run their coach out of town is Fresno, who fired Tim DeRuyter. During Mondays Championship Drive podcast, Ivan Maisel threw out some names of potential coaching candidates, including former Fresno bench-warming QB Lane Kiffin. As soon as we were done recording the pod, I immediately wrote a letter to Santa saying I wanted to change the first item on my wish list from an Evel Knievel action figure to Lane Kiffin becoming the head coach at Fresno State.7. Kansas Nayhawks?(1-6) You can always tell its time for Halloween when cable television channels start filling up their programming calendar with horror movies. For example: Kansas at Oklahoma and Kansas at West Virginia.8. I-Ow!-A State?(1-6) A friendly warning: Assuming we all come out of the Owl Bowl with our wits still intact, we need to immediately brace ourselves for what comes the very next weekend, when Iowa State travels to Kansas for the Auntie Em Bowl.9. UMess?(1-7) Two weeks ago, UMass surrendered 690 yards to Louisiana Tech. On Saturday, South Carolina scored more than 20 points for the first time this season. The Minutemen are the best thing to happen to improving male performance since ... well ... since a joke I cant write here without being fired.10. In a Rut-gers?(2-6)The Knights host Open Date U. this weekend. Curiously, FPI gives the Fightin Byes a 42.7 percent chance of winning.Waiting list: EC-Yew (2-5), Feeling Ill-inois (2-5), Marshall (2-5), My Hammy of Ohio (2-6), State of Kent (2-6), NI-Whew (2-6), San Jose State (2-6), UL(not L)M (2-5), commenting that a team is cheating and refusing to comment on those comments. ' ' '