Garrett Jones made the most of his first start at first base in a while with a 3-for-4 night with a homer and 4 RBI’s and Francisco Liriano continued his dominance of the Cardinals as the Pirates pull back into a tie with St. Louis for first place in the NL Central with a 5 – 0 victory on Friday night.
For Jones, it was a breath of fresh air after a few days off. Jones was batting .119 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI before tonight and was given time off to mentally recharge the batteries. That break seemed to pay off as he went 3-for-4 with a single, double, home run and 4 RBI. “It was a good mental break for a couple days and I just was excited to get back in there. Big game, big series and just made some adjustments and too it into the game and it felt good, it felt good and aggressive and strong and it was nice to be able to contribute to win.”
His home run came in the fourth with the Pirates leading 2 – 0 as he took a Shelby Miller 0 – 2 fastball just inside of the right field foul pole and into the Clemente seats. Russell Martin would then come up and take the next Miller pitch to dead center for the back-to-back jacks.
Those homers were more than enough as Francisco Liriano dominated the Cardinals lineup, with Yadier Molina included, for a second straight game. He would not allow a single Cardinal to reach past first base as he issued only two singles and two walks over eight strong innings while only needing 95 pitches to do so. “Tonight just wasn’t about me. We played great defense and I think it was the best night we played defense so far so I just tried to go out there and not do too much and take one pitch at a time, one hitter at a time and try to locate all of my pitches try to keep them down in the zone and not try to do too much.”
Mark Melancon would come in and pitch a scoreless ninth inning while allowing two hits. It was his first work in six days. Clint Hurdle had the option to bring Liriano out to complete the game, but he saw that Liriano was running low on steam. “We we’re looking to go to Mark (in the 9th), but Frankie left everything he had, he emptied the tank on the field.”
Jose Tabata, Neil Walker and Marlon Byrd accounted for the other three runs scored on Friday night. They were all knocked in by Garrett Jones.
Final Score: Pirates 5, Cardinals 0
Starters Lines
Liriano (W, 15 – 6): 8 IN, 2 H, 2 BB, 6 K’s. 95 Pitches (59 Strikes)
Miller (L, 12 – 9): 4 1/3 IN, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K’s, 2 HR, 1 HP. 99 Pitches (58 Strikes)
These two will be fighting for sole possession of first place in the second game of the 3-game set tomorrow night.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) A.J. Burnett (PIT): 6 – 9, 3.18 ERA
(RHP) Lance Lynn (STL): 13 – 8, 4.02 ERA
First pitch is set for 7:05
Follow Travis for Pirates news and in-game updates on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @Theyinzer
(Photo Credit: Matt Freed/Post-Gazette)
