The Pirates pushed across six runs against the Blue Jays bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings en route to an 8-6 win over Toronto on Saturday night.
Clint Barmes started the seventh off with a double forcing Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey from the game. The knuckleballer had limited the Pirate bats to only three hits to that point. The Bucco bats then got to work against the Jays bullpen collecting four hits (two doubles) and one walk culminating in Jordy Mercer’s pinch-hit 2 RBI double to tie things at six.
“You live for those things,” said Mercer. “So, when you get the opportunity to help the team win and come up with the big hit…Like I said, you live for those moments, it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Pirates took the lead for the first time in the game in the eighth when Ike Davis and Josh Harrison both collected one out singles. Neil Walker — who was hitting .372 in the 7th inning or later before the at bat — battled a sudden downpour, but connected on a double off of the top of the left-center field wall to make it 8-6.
“It’s resiliency,” said Walker. “If our team last year told you anything about what this team’s M.O. was, getting big hits late in the game, pitching well and playing good defense. Tonight was one of those nights where we didn’t play real great defense, we didn’t pitch real well, but somehow we found a way to win in the end.”
For the second straight night, the offense bailed out a mediocre start by a Pirate pitcher and poor defense — three errors on the night — as Francisco Liriano failed to get out of the fourth inning.
Liriano retired the first six batters before allowing a run in the third inning which was aided by Tony Sanchez’s throwing error on a strikeout. The wheels came off in the fourth when he allowed the first four Blue Jays batters to reach. He then walked Melky Cabrera with the bases loaded to end his night. Jared Hughes quickly stopped the bleeding by getting Jose Bautista to ground out to end the inning.
“I just tried to throw my sinker down-and-away, but I just missed my spots and got behind in the counts,” said Liriano. “I don’t know, everything changed, the whole game changed. I didn’t execute my pitches and, like I said, I was missing my spots a lot.”
The Pirate bullpen did a good job of keeping the game within reach allowing only three hits and one run in 5 1/3 innings of work. Bryan Morris recorded his third win of the year by pitching a scoreless eighth and Mark Melancon notched his first save of the season with a scoreless ninth.
Final Score: Pirates 8, Blue Jays 6.
Josh Harrison played in the lead-off spot for the first time this season and went 0-for-3 against Dickey, but went 2-for-2 with a double, RBI and two runs scored against the Blue Jays bullpen.
“That’s our team,” said Harrison. “We don’t give up and we know we’re not out of it until the last out. Everyday it can be somebody different. We believe in each other and regardless of what the score is at any given moment we know of what we can do and what we’re capable of.”
Starters Lines
Liriano (ND): 3 2/3 IN, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K’s. 68 Pitches (40 Strikes).
Dickey (ND): 6+ IN, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K’s, 1 WP. 105 Pitches (69 Strikes).
The Pirates look for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 1:35.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) Edinson Volquez (PIT): 1-2, 3.21 ERA
(RHP) Dustin McGowan (TOR): 1-1, 5.87 ERA
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(Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
