A season-high five home runs for the New York Yankees (22-19) were more than enough to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates (17-24) at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Still searching for the franchise’s first regular season win in New York, Edinson Volquez (1-4) and the Pirates were down early, unable to match the power of the Yankees lineup. Mark Teixeira homered in the first for a quick 2-0 lead, Zoilo Almonte added a solo shot in the third, and Brett Gardner, Alfonso Soriano and Brian McCann all went deep later in the game to help win the series opener by a 7-1 final.
Yankees starter David Phelps (1-0) threw 100 pitches over five innings in which the Pirates crowded the basepaths, but could not score. Phelps allowed five hits, three walks and hit a batter, but costly baserunning errors and inability to hit with runners in scoring position hurt the Pirates in the end. The lone run came on a Starling Marte home run off of Dellin Betances to lead off the sixth inning. Pittsburgh had at least one baserunner in each of the first eight innings of the game.
Volquez allowed five runs in six innings of work, but only on six hits and zero walks. It was a bizarre stat line that was certainly and almost exclusively soiled by the long ball. McCann’s two-run bomb came off of Vin Mazzaro in the eighth.
The series concludes tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader that begins at 1 pm. Charlie Morton (0-5) will try for his first win of the season against veteran Hiroki Kuroda (2-3) in the first game. Gerrit Cole (3-3) will battle Vidal Nuno (1-1) in the second game. The Pirates are 1-3 on the current road trip and return home after tomorrow’s twinbill for a continuation of interleague play, when the Baltimore Orioles come to PNC Park.
