The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the San Francisco Giants by a 5-2 score Sunday night to take three games out of the four-game series.
“There were a lot of different things that happened out there tonight that complicated things at times but we were able to stay in front of it, get outs when we needed them and add on runs when we needed them,” manager Clint Hurdle said.
It was an up and down day for Pedro Alvarez. Alvarez was responsible for two errors and was an official scorer decision away from making a third. He has 18 errors on the season and is one error away from tying Ryan Howard’s mark which was set in 2008.
Nonetheless, fans loudly and proudly chanted, “Let’s go Pedro,” when he came to the plate in the seventh inning. Alvarez would reward his fans with an opposite field home run off Josh Osich, a left-handed reliever, to give the Pirates their fifth run of the game. The homer was Alvarez’s 20th of the season and he has hit 20 or more homers in three of the past four seasons.
Francisco Liriano was the recipient of some bad luck with three errors and of the two runs he allowed, neither were earned.
Liriano [9-6] struggled with his control at times and allowed runs in the fifth and sixth innings. An Alvarez error on a Marlon Byrd at-bat brought home the first run and Nori Aoki singled to bring home the other run.
“I just focus on the next hitter and put it behind me,” said Liriano. “I’m worried about executing pitches and that’s going to happen to me sometimes and you just have to focus on the next hitter.”
A three-run first inning proved to be all the Pirates needed as eight batters got an at-bat. The first RBI came when Ryan Vogelsong [9-9] walked Jung Ho Kang with the bases loaded. Neil Walker immediately followed with a single on a 2-2 pitch and Alvarez contributed the third run with a sacrifice fly.
Andrew McCutchen hit a two-out home run in the sixth inning, his 19th of the season, off Jeremy Affeldt. Alvarez added his home run an inning later.
Liriano made it 5.1 innings and Arquimedes Caminero got the final two outs of the inning.
“The biggest sequence of event we had going tonight was Caminero,” Hurdle said. “He kept the game in check and I think kind of tipped it our way from a momentum standpoint.”
Joakim Soria allowed a walk and ground-rule double in the seventh inning which prevented a run from scoring. Pinch-hitter Brandon Belt flew out to end what was a 30-pitch inning for Soria.
Tony Watson pitched the eighth inning and earned his major-league leading 31st hold of the season.
Mark Melancon pitched the ninth to pick up his league-leading 39th save of the season.
The Pirates will travel to face the Miami Marlins on Monday. J.A. Happ [1-1 2.87 ERA] will face Tom Koehler [8-11 4.02 ERA]. Happ is 2-2 with a 4.54 ERA in nine career games [six starts] against the Marlins.
Photo credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
