Josh Harrison came into his eighth inning pinch-hit appearance with hits in just two of his last 14 at bats, but when the Pittsburgh Pirates needed him most, he came through.
Harrison’s RBI single off Scott Oberg scored the go-ahead run and resulted in a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday evening.
“You’ve got to be ready when you’re pinch-hitting,” Harrison said. “If you get a pitch you think you can handle, you put a swing on it. I just wanted to stay fastball ready and adjust to everything else.”
The Pirates jumped out to an early two-run lead, scoring in both the first and third innings.
In the first, Andrew McCutchen recorded a two-out single and then stole second base, his seventh of the season. Jung Ho Kang batted him in with a single of his own. Kang has now hit safely in 20 of his past 25 games at PNC Park.
In the third inning, Gregory Polanco singled to reach base safely for the 40th time in his past 45 games. Kang again batted in a run, this time with a double. Andrew McCutchen, who walked in the previous at-bat, was held at third, and Francisco Cervelli struck out with the bases loaded to strand three runners on base.
Jose Reyes tied the game in the top of the fifth with a two-out home run off the bottom of the foul pole in left field. It was Reyes’ seventh of the season and third with the Rockies. The play also scored Kyle Parker, who had walked to lead off the inning.
The bottom half of the inning saw Polanco slide in safely with a leadoff double, advance to third base on a wild pitch and score on a Starling Marte sacrifice fly to put the Pirates back in the lead, 3-2.
In the sixth, Francisco Liriano remained in the game and allowed a one-out home run to Carlos Gonzalez, his 31st of the season. Nick Hundley then hit a single hard off the Clemente Wall in right field, however, Gregory Polanco read the bounce and threw to second. Caught in between bases, Hundley chose to retreat to first but Jordy Mercer threw him out.
“It was definitely a turning point,” said Harrison. [Hundley] thought he had a double and [Polanco] had a good read on it and made a good throw. I think the rep of the outfield might be not to run anymore but we’ll let them keep testing.”
The Rockies had a chance to take the lead in the eighth inning with Reyes on third base after a single, sacrifice and stolen base. Nolan Arenado hit a shallow fly ball to Polanco, who then threw home. Cervelli applied the tag on Reyes to end the inning.
“I know he’s fast and I just tried to put a good throw on it,” Polanco said. “Right now I feel very confident.”
The 32,607 fans in attendance erupted and after Rockies manager Walt Weiss elected not to challenge the play Polanco pumped his fist and went back into the dugout with his teammates.
“He played a great right field all game and has all year,” Tony Watson said of Polanco.
Oberg [3-3] allowed two runs and opened with walks to Cervelli and Pedro Alvarez also. Harrison recorded the first RBI and a Polanco single allowed the second Pirates run of the inning to cross home plate.
Watson [3-1] earned the win and has allowed three earned runs in 34 innings at PNC Park this season. Mark Melancon pitched the ninth inning and earned his Major League-leading 42nd save of the season.
The series will resume on Saturday when J.A. Happ [2-1 2.08 ERA] faces Chris Rusin [4-6 4.97 ERA]. Happ is 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in four career appearances [three starts] against the Rockies.
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