The Cole/Strasburg matchup lived up to it’s hype on Saturday night in front of a sold out crowd at PNC Park and a semi-national Baseball Night in America FOX audience as the Pirates came back to beat the Nationals 3-2.
Strasburg seemed to have the game in hand with the Nationals (24-25) leading 2-1 heading into the seventh, but the Pirates (22-26) took a chapter from the 2013 squad and bounced back. Russell Martin started the inning off with a single. He was moved to third with one out on a Starling Marte double off the right-center field wall. Jose Tabata then hit a pinch-hit sac fly to center to tie things at two.
Travis Snider then pinch-hit for the pitchers spot and got ahead of Strasburg 2-0. Nats rookie manager Matt Williams then decided to intentionally walk Snider and take his chances against hot-hitting Josh Harrison.
The plan backfired as Harrison continued his heroic homestand with a single to center to give the Pirates the lead. Snider was thrown out at third on the play to end the inning.
“I had three at bats against him and I had seen everything he threw me and in my third at bat I felt it was a pretty good at bat,” said Harrison. “When I went up there the fourth time, I was pretty much telling myself I felt like I was seeing everything he was throwing and I was just looking to barrel something up.”
Gerrit Cole did what was asked of him by going blow-for-blow with Strasburg. The Pirate right hander rolled through the first three innings in 27 pitches before encountering some trouble. Ian Desmond hit his second homer of the series with one out in the fourth, but it was the only damage on the scoreboard in the inning, however, on a groundout to end the inning, Cole rolled his ankle on the play and limped off the field. It looked serious at the time, but Cole was unharmed form it the rest of the way.
Cole got into more trouble in the fifth when he allowed two hits and a walk with two outs in the inning allowing the Nationals to score their second and final run of the game as they were unable to score with the bases loaded when Greg Dobbs grounded out to end the inning.
“They put together some good at bats and got my pitch count up,” said Cole. “I wasn’t as efficient as I wanted to be in the middle of the ballgame, but at the same time, I just tried to limit the damage as best as I can.”
After a gutsy sixth inning by Cole, the bullpen pitched a calm final nine outs with Mark Melancon recording his ninth save of the year.
“As you start playing better, we have gotten some traction at home,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “The crowd is live, the guys are feeling better about themselves. I just like the fact that we were down, we tied it up. We’re down again, we come back and we battle and we got through it with the bottom of the order.”
Final Score: Pirates 3, Nationals 2
Starters Lines
Cole (ND): 6 IN, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K’s, 2 HBP, 1 HR. 112 Pitches (69 Strikes).
Strasburg: 7 IN, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 IBB, 7 K’s, 1 HBP, 1 HR. 110 Pitches (71 Strikes).
The Bucs will look for the four-game sweep tomorrow afternoon.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(LHP) Francisco Liriano (PIT): 0-4, 4.86 ERA
(RHP) Doug Fister (WAS): 1-1, 3.93 ERA
First pitch is set for 1:35.
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(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
