It was a night to forget for Corey Hart.
In Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, Hart struck out three times and his not being able to run down a fly ball in right field allowed the winning run to cross home plate.
“You make decisions and you live with them as a manager,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “I haven’t managed a perfect game yet in the years I’ve been doing it.”
The Pirates took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning. Neil Walker fell behind 1-2 in the count against Cole Hamels [3-3] and fouled off a couple pitches before hitting a 3-2 fastball for a single. Jordy Mercer followed with a single. Pitcher Francisco Liriano had two strikes against him however he was able to bunt both runners into scoring position. Josh Harrison was hit by an 0-2 pitch, which loaded the bases. Sean Rodriguez struck out meaning there were two outs.
This brought Andrew McCutchen to the plate, and he batted in two runs with a first pitch single to left-center field. McCutchen has at least one RBI in each game of this series. He has hit safely in 12 of his last 14 games against the Phillies.
The Phillies tallied three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Both Jeff Francoeur and Cesar Hernandez singled to open the inning and Carlos Ruiz drove in a run on a double. After Hamels struck out, Ben Revere brought in a second run with an RBI ground out. Freddy Galvis ended up plating the game-winning run when his fly ball dropped short of a running Hart.
“They found the hole a couple of times and got a couple of base hits that inning,” said Liriano. “I’m not trying to do too much, just try to execute my pitches. I just have to move forward and get better for my next start.”
A Philles two-out rally almost resulted in an additional run as they were able to load the bases thank in large part to two Liriano walks, but Chase Utley grounded out to first ending the threat.
Liriano [1-3] took the loss. He pitched seven inning allowing three runs on seven hits. Liriano walked three batters and struck out six on 105 pitches, 56 of which were strikes.
“I don’t think he made mistakes today,” Cervelli said. “He pitched an unbelievable game, we couldn’t score more runs and that’s it. He pitched really good today, I’ve got no complaints.”
When Starling Marte was ruled out on a ground out after Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg challenged the play, it was the start of seven consecutive batters Hamels retired to end his outing. Hamels was able to effectively use his change up and 78 of his 115 pitches were strikes. Reliever Ken Giles added two more outs to the consecutive batter streak before a Marte single.
“You cannot win games 1-0, 2-0, you’ve got to keep scoring runs,” said Cervelli. “They’ve got a good guy on the mound and we give credit to him and that’s it. We battled today but tomorrow we come fresh and let’s play again.”
Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth inning and earned his seventh save of the season, as Francoeur gunned down pinch-runner Steve Lombardozzi the potential game-tying run at the plate to end the game.
“It was a good call [to send me],” Lombardozzi said. “I’m trying to push it because he’s got to go all the way to his right. We took a chance there. He has to make a perfect throw there and he did. If he doesn’t it’s a tie game.”
For Papelbon, the save gave him the 113th in his Phillies career, which is the most in franchise history. He already led the Boston Red Sox with 219 saves, so he joins Rob Nen [Marlins/Giants] as the two pitchers to holds the saves record for two different clubs.
This four-game series will conclude Thursday when former Phillie Vance Worley [2-2 4.63 ERA] faces Aaron Harang [3-3 2.38 ERA]. Worley is 1-0 in one career start against the Phillies allowing three runs in five innings. Harang is 16-8 with a 4.04 ERA in 28 career starts against the Pirates.
Photo courtesy: MLB.com
