The Pittsburgh Pirates saw its first two pitchers on staff have good outings in a 3-3 extra inning tie Wednesday evening against the Baltimore Orioles.
Francisco Liriano was the first to pitch and threw three innings while allowing his first run of Spring Training. Liriano now has a 0.75 ERA. He allowed three hits and struck out two batters in his time on the mound.
Liriano was replaced by Gerrit Cole who threw three scoreless innings allowing one hit and one walk while striking out three batters. Cole now has a 3.24 ERA and his 16.2 innings pitched are second among all team pitchers.
Both Liriano and Cole were both beneficiaries from some stellar defense. Pedro Alvarez would make a diving stop to end the first inning. Jung-ho Kang had three ground ball come his way in the second inning and got the out on each, one of which required a jump throw from deep in the hole that was picked by Alvarez. Josh Harrison made a diving stop on another grounder and later cut off a slow-rolling grounder and made the throw to first base.
Alvarez also used his bat in the game hitting a two-run home run off Orioles Opening Day starter Chris Tillman, his fifth homer of the spring.
Everth Cabrera accounted for the first two Orioles runs hitting the homer off Liriano and tripling off Arquimedes Caminero. The Orioles took the lead when Alejandro De Aza singled on a ground ball to defensive replacement Sean Rodriguez. Rodriguez made a play to get to the ball and then unleashed a throw that Alvarez was unable to snag without taking his foot off first base.
Andrew Lambo led off the eighth inning with his fifth double of the spring and advanced 90 feet on a Harrison infield single. A Gregory Polanco grounder led to a double play, however it allowed Lambo to score and tie the game.
Stolmy Pimentel threw a scoreless eighth inning for the Pirates although he induced two long fly ball outs in the process.
Adam Miller allowed the first two runners to reach base and balked to advance the runners 90 feet with one out, but got out of the jam resulting in an extra inning. A.J. Morris pitched the 10th inning.
Neil Walker was 2-for-3 at the plate with one of those hits being his eighth double of the spring. Harrison also registered two hits.
The Pirates will have a road game Thursday afternoon against the New York Yankees. A.J. Burnett is expected to start against one of his former teams.
Notebook: Andrew McCutchen departed the game in the eighth inning after stumbling coming out of the batter’s box. Initially thought to be a rib injury, McCutchen told Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he stumbled upon home plate coming out of the batter’s box and that he removed himself from the game as a precaution.
