ST. LOUIS - Mike Matheny hears the smart aleck fans and commentators who are questioning his decisions to bunt. Matheny, a second-year manager, regards the bunt as the smartest play in baseball, and he refuses to apologize for his aggressive use.

"I think it's a great play. It gets the man into scoring position, and when you got guys like Allen (Craig), Yadi (Molina), Matt (Holliday), Carlos (Beltran) and David (Freese), you're never afraid to give up the out," Matheny said. "People can say what they want, but the bunt play is hard to defend."

Matheny appeared to be in bunt heaven in the Cardinals 4-3 loss against Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. In the 10th inning, with the game tied 3-3, Holliday drew a leadoff walk against Pirates reliever Vin Mazzarro. Catcher Rob Johnson, somehow pretzled into the game, bunted Holliday over. Johnson reached safely when the throw to second pulled Pirates second baseman Neil Walker off the bag.

Matheny went back to the bunt with Jon Jay batting. Jay had three hits when he came up in the 10th, but Matheny called for him to sacrifice, which delighted Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle.

"Mike really saved our hides with that one," Hurdle said while wiping his shiny brow. "I didn't know what we were going to do because Jay has been on fire. That's a guy hitting .364 in August...he had three hits before that. I was sweating gravy. Holy (expletive)."

Let the second guessing of Matheny begin. Matheny doesn't want to hear it, though.

"Look, Jay is a great bunter. You can't take the chance that he's going to hit into a DP (double play) there," Matheny said. "The guy can handle the bat, but we like him to put two in scoring position. That's what we're looking for."

Matheny played right into Hurdle's hands. The Pirates manager ordered an intentional walk of Adron Chambers to set up a double play and force Pete Kozma to come through. Kozma struck out, then Mazzarro got out of the jam with a fly out from Daniel Descalso. The reliever shared in his manager's delight at Matheny's bunt calls. "I won't lie to you guys, Jay probably ropes one down the line and we lose. But it's almost like that guy over there (Matheny) wants to make it as complicated as possible for his team to win."

Compounding the Cardinals' problems is Kozma, whose batting average has plummeted to .229. Matheny says he'll continue giving his rookie shortstop every chance to break out of the funk, and he stands behind him. "We wouldn't have advanced as far as we did in 2012 without that guy," Matheny said. "Our fans can complain about it, but we were a game away from the World Series bunting aggressively and playing Pete. I don't know why they can't be satisfied."