Pedro Alvarez tied it in the ninth with a two-run home run to right-center and Starling Marte later ended it with a walk-off shot into the Pirate bullpen to give the Bucs a 6-5 comeback victory over the Blue Jays on Friday night.
The Pirates trailed 5-3 heading into the final frame when Neil Walker led the bottom of the ninth off with a single to right field. Pedro Alvarez followed two batters later with a shot into the right-center seats to tie the game at five. After a Gaby Sanchez flyout, Marte came up and sent a Sergio Santos fastball into the Pirate bullpen sending the Pirates off with a much-needed victory to start off the homestand.
“It’s great,” said Alvarez. “[Marte] works He works really hard. He’s a huge part of this team and when he’s on base, if it’s a walk, it’s pretty much a double or a triple with his speed, so the last few days have been really good for him putting some good contact on some balls, getting a lot of hits and being on base and being an annoyance to the team.”
Gerrit Cole took the ball for the Pirates and gave up an uncharacteristic four runs over five innings of work. He retired the first two batters to start the ballgame before experiencing some location trouble that allowed Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion to both double putting the Blue Jays up 1-0.
The problems would reemerge in the fourth when Cole allowed a lead-off double to Juan Francisco. He would advance to third on a wild pitch, but it wouldn’t matter as Colby Rasmus hit a two-run shot into the left field bleachers. The final run given up by Cole came in the fifth when Jose Reyes led-off the inning with a single and stolen base and scored on Jose Bautista’s RBI single.
The Pirates left ten men on base and were 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position, but were still able to get the job done. Andrew McCutchen continued his hot hitting going 3-for-5 with a double, 2 RBI and a stolen base while Neil Walker went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a hit-by-pitch and three runs scored.
“This is the next opportunity for us to move upon some momentum, to get a really good team victory to finish what we started,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “We kept creating opportunities, our pitching held it together, we played some good defense and that’s more along the lines of what we do and how we do it.”
Casey Sadler made his Major League debut tonight pitching two scoreless innings while allowing one hit, one walk, one wild pitch and striking out two.
Starters Lines
Cole (ND): 5 IN, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER,1 BB, 6 K’s, 1 WP, 1 HR. 94 Pitches (56 Strikes).
Morrow (ND): 5 IN, 11 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K’s, 1 WP. 102 Pitches (68 Strikes).
These two will be back at it tomorrow evening for the second game of the three-game series.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(LHP) Francisco Liriano (PIT): 0-3, 3.97 ERA
(RHP) R.A. Dickey (TOR): 2-3, 5.09 ERA
First pitch is set for 7:05.
Follow @TBerardi_OVA
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
