Stop if you’ve read this before: The Oakland Athletics beat the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 2-1. Okay, don’t stop reading, but you get the point. For the second straight night, the Pirates found themselves in the midst of a pitcher’s duel with the A’s. Last night featured the battle of the All-Stars, Bartolo Colon and Jeff Locke. Tonight, after a one-hour, 40-minute rain delay, two rookies took the mound and followed last night’s script rather closely.
For the Pirates, Gerrit Cole took the mound in his first start since suffering his first career loss at the hands of the Phillies. All-in-all, Cole pitcher very well, striking out four and hitting the seventh inning for first time in his big league career. Because of one mistake pitch and an lackluster effort by the offense, Cole took the loss.
In the fourth, Cole left a changeup up in the zone that former Pirate Brandon Moss didn’t miss. The home run was Moss’s 16th of the season. From 2008-2010, Moss hit a combined 13 homers for the Pirates.
Putting the Pirates on the board in the second inning was Pedro Alvarez. Alvarez, whom many feel was snubbed from the Home Run Derby, hit his 23rd home run of the season off of the batter’s eye in center field. As has been the case lately, the rest of the offense failed to put up any numbers and capitalize with runner’s in scoring position.
With the loss, the Pirates are now 0-11 lifetime against the A’s. The two remain the only two teams with an imperfect and perfect record against each other.
The Pirates will look to stop the streak and prevent the sweep as they send Francisco Liriano (8-3, 2.20 ERA) fresh off his complete game performance against Chicago. For the A’s, Tommy Milone (8-7, 4.11 ERA) will take the bump. The finale is scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m.
