The Arizona Diamondbacks attacked Gerrit Cole’s fastball early and often and won a 4-1 contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates Monday night.
Cole [14-7] tied a season-high allowing nine hits in the contest while also throwing 30-pitches in the first inning.
The Diamondbacks struck first with a two-run first inning. A.J. Pollock hit a triple off the Clemente Wall in right field. Gregory Polanco did not read the bounce off the right field wall correctly allowing Pollock to advance to third base. David Peralta batted him in with a double. Welington Castillo then batted Peralta in after Peralta advanced to third by wild pitch.
An inning later, Chris Owings led off with a double and Jeremy Hellickson helped his own cause with an RBI single. The Diamondbacks led 4-0 when Jake Lamb hit his fifth home run of the season. The play was reviewed and the call stood.
Hellickson [9-8] confused Pirates hitters throughout the night with his deliberate delivery and surrendered three hits.
“We have to be patient with this guy and I think he played with us,” Francisco Cervelli said. “He’s been doing that since Tampa Bay. Today was really slow, we were missing balls but he pitched well, I give him the credit.”
His lone blemish on the scoreboard was Pedro Alvarez’s fifth-inning home run, his 19th of the season. It also was the 1,000th homer by a Pirate in PNC Park history.
The Pirates had chances to tie the game in innings 6-8.
In the seventh, the Pirates had the bases loaded with one out, however Addison Reed got Polanco to strike out and Starling Marte to fly out to end the inning.
“That’s usually what separates winning from losing,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “We weren’t able to create any opportunities until Hellickson left. We had a number of different guys come up and get the big hit. We kept pushing back but weren’t able to crack it open.”
Brad Ziegler pitched the ninth inning and earned his 21st save of the season.
The three-game series continues Tuesday when Francisco Liriano [8-6 3.19 ERA] faces Chase Anderson [5-5 4.31 ERA]. Liriano is 1-0 with a 0.98 ERA in three career starts against the Diamondbacks.
Of note: Cervelli was reported to have an injury sliding into second base in the ninth inning, however following the game he denied the report and referred to the play as “another scar”… Rob Scahill pitched for a second consecutive day in his rehab assignment with Triple-A Indianapolis and threw a scoreless 10-pitch inning while throwing eight strikes. Frank Herrmann who officially signed a minor league deal with the Pirates made his debut with the Indians and threw 1.1 scoreless innings while striking out three batters… Gregory Polanco went 0-for-5 at the plate ending his 10-game hitting streak.
Photo credit: @Pirates
