*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
The Jolly Roger is going up a lot this season in the steel city. Carlos Santana drove in a run, Tucupita Marcano hit a grand slam, and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Texas Rangers 6-4 on Monday night in Pittsburgh.
Despite a skid that's seen them win just 4 of 10, the Pirates are still second place in the NL Central with a 25-22 record as May starts to come to an end. 3 players drove in runs for the Pirates, with Marcano's grand slam serving as the headliner.
Connor Joe started the scoring in the second inning for the Pirates, grounding out to score Ke'Bryan Hayes and make it 1-0 Pirates. It would stay that way until the 6th, when a Corey Seager sac fly got the Rangers on the board and tied it 1-1. Come the 7th inning, Santana put the Pirates ahead 2-1 with an RBI single.
Later in the inning, Marcano broke the game open for the Pirates, blasting a grand slam to center field to make the score 6-1 in favor of the Pirates. In the 8th inning, Marcus Semien got a run back for the Rangers thanks to an RBI single. Josh Jung hit a two run home run in the 9th to make it 6-4, but the Pirates held on from there.
Marcano said of hitting the grand slam after the game that "I felt from pitch one that I had chance to connect on that ball pretty good, and that’s what I did. I had some good swings before the pitch, and he put a pitch over the plate where I could connect."
Getting the start for the Pirates was Luis Ortiz, who got his first major league win by allowing two runs over 7 2/3 innings, striking out 4 hitters. Colin Holderman finished the 8th inning before David Bednar sealed the win in the 9th.
Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said of Ortiz's start that "Luis was in attack mode the whole time against the best offense in baseball. It shows the quality of his stuff because of the fact they were very aggressive, but the first four or five innings there weren’t a lot of balls on the barrel at all."
Starting for the Rangers was Dane Dunning, who got a no decision after allowing one run on 6 hits and 3 walks over 5 2/3 innings pitched. Josh Sborz pitched the next inning and got the loss thanks to 3 earned runs. Joe Barlow finished the 7th inning with two earned runs before Jonathan Hernandez pitched a scoreless 8th inning.
Dunning said of his start that "They were really good at not chasing stuff off the plate. I just made some elevated sliders they were able to put some good swings on and some elevated mistakes. I thought they had a good approach at the plate. We kind of just took how their approach was and tried to do the opposite later on."
Up next, the series continues on Tuesday night. The Pirates will start veteran lefty Rich Hill in the second game, while the Rangers send Nathan Eovaldi to the mound.
Comments
Post a Comment