On the eve of the one year anniversary of Charlie Morton’s Tommy John Surgery, the right hander took the mound for his first big league start of the season. Unfortunately, his start coincided with one of the worst games played by the Pirates all season.
Morton and the bullpen surrendered nine runs, the defense committed three errors, and the lineup only produced three hits as the Pirates were blown out 10-0 in the season finale, Thursday night.
Morton got off to a rough start to begin the game. After walking Gregor Blanco on five pitches, Morton hit Brandon Crawford with one pitch to give the Giants two baserunners. A ground ball from Buster Posey found its way between Alvarez and Mercer leading to the first run of the game.
“I think he did some things well and he’s got some areas that he can improve on. If we play better defense behind him maybe he gets out of the inning giving up just two runs over five innings,” said a surprisingly upbeat Clint Hurdle.
The Giants tacked on another run in the second inning off of a ground ball single by Blanco.
Morton looked like he was starting to settle in but a two run inning in the fourth broke the game open, giving the Giants a 4-0 lead. Crawford reached on a hit by pitch with one out and advanced to third on a ground rule double by Buster Posey. Hunter Pence hit a ground ball to Walker who fired home to induce Crawford into a rundown. Crawford was tagged out but third base umpire Marvin Hudson ruled Pedro Alvarez interfered with the base runner, granting Crawford home.
Andres Torres’s sacrifice fly brought in the second run of the inning before Hunter Pence was hit by the ball on the base paths to end the threat.
Garret Jones broke up Matt Cain’s no hitter with a lead off single in the bottom of the fifth, but Neil Walker grounded into his second double play in as many at bats.
Mike Zagurski relieved Morton in the sixth inning and probably pitched his way out of Pittsburgh.
San Francisco put up five runs thanks in large part to a three run bomb by Pence that landed in the Pirates’ bullpen. The inning started with a throwing error by Walker on a softly hit ground ball by Nick Noonan. Three consecutive singles, including a ball that was late getting to second base on a force attempt, led to Pence’s 11th homer of the season.
Nine runs would be more than enough for Matt Cain, who carved through Pirate hitters allowing just two hits over six and a half innings while striking out three. Cain fell well short of his perfect game performance exactly one year ago, to the day. Nevertheless, he was effective enough to silence Pittsburgh bats who put up twenty runs in the first two games of this series.
“We got to see the real good Matt Cain tonight. He’s evolved into a complete pitcher. The velocity isn’t as high but his cutter/slider combination is really effective.”
The Pirates will turn to Jeff Locke on Friday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Locke’s start was bumped up after AJ Burnett was placed on the DL with a calf strain.
First pitch slated for 7:05.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! sports
