Bartolo Colon continued his effectiveness against the Pirates throwing 7 1/3 strong shutout innings in a Mets 5-0 victory over the Bucs on Wednesday afternoon.
Colon struck out nine Pirates while allowing only five hits over 121 pitches as the Mets bullpen has been overused in the past couple days.
The only real threat came in the eighth as Colon began to fatigue with the Mets up 3-0. Josh Harrison led the inning off with a deep fly to center that was tracked down by Mets centerfielder Juan Lagares at the last second. Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen followed with one-out singles chasing Colon from the game.
Jeurys Familia came in and got Ike Davis to ground into a double play on the first pitch to end the threat. Davis was 0-for-7 with two strikeouts and a walk in his return to New York since being traded in April.
Charlie Morton didn’t have an ideal outing as errors dug the Pirates an early hole. With two outs in the second, a runner on third and Colon at the plate, Morton threw a wild pitch that went underneath Chris Stewart allowing the Mets to take an early 1-0 lead.
More errors led to a second run in the third when Pedro Alvarez airmailed first base on a Daniel Murphy grounder. Davis then made a throw to second that Jordy Mercer was unable to handle allowing Murphy to run to third. David Wright followed with a RBI single.
Wright got to Morton again in the sixth when he took a 2-2 two-seamer over the centerfield wall for his fourth homer of the year.
The Mets added a two-run homer from Lucas Duda off of Bryan Morris in the eighth inning to finish the scoring.
Final Score: Mets 5, Pirates 0.
Starters Lines
Morton (L, 1-7): 5 1/3 IN, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K’s, 2 WP, 1 HR. 104 Pitches (62 Strikes).
Colon (W, 4-5): 7 1/3, 5 H, 1 IBB, 9 K’s, 1 WP. 121 Pitches (85 Strikes).
The Pirates will now fly to the west coast to begin a four-game series against the Dodgers in LA starting tomorrow night.
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(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
