MLB.com
PHILADELPHIA — On a night Wandy Rodriguez did just enough to keep his team in the game, the Pirates did just enough to secure a win on Wednesday.
Rodriguez allowed three runs, including solo home runs by Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, on nine hits, but Pittsburgh rallied against the Phillies’ bullpen for a 5-3 win at Citizens Bank Park. Roy Halladay had a third straight solid outing before the relief corps surrendered three runs over the seventh and eighth innings.
After Pedro Alvarez’s seventh-inning home run off of reliever Antonio Bastardo made it 3-2, a two-run eighth capped by Brandon Inge’s go-ahead single off setup man Mike Adams led to a much-needed Bucs win.
Pinch-hitter Jose Tabata led off the eighth with a walk. Sterling Marte followed with an infield single and Travis Snider — 0-for-3 up to that point — singled into right to score Tabata and tie the game at 3. Adams walked Andrew McCutcheon to end his night without recording an out and left the bases loaded for reliever Jeremy Horst.
To counter Horst, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle went to the right-handed bat of Inge. On Tuesday night, Inge provided all the offense the Bucs needed in a 2-0 win as his RBI double off Cole Hamels scored the first run of the game. On Wednesday, Inge swung at Horst’s first offering and his RBI single through a drawn-in infield handed the Pirates a 4-3 lead. Hoerst did get a 3-2-3 double play two pitches later by Neil Walker followed by a ground out by Alvarez, but the damage was done.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez had opened the year in dominant form, having allowed just one earned run over 16 innings of work in three starts. That included just five hits and one walk — but that type of efficiency wasn’t the story against the Phillies on Wednesday.
Rodriguez had just one clean inning, and at least one runner reached second in five of the 5 2/3 innings he worked. Still, the veteran battled and opened the sixth with consecutive groundouts.
That’s when the wheels came off for Rodgriguez as Ben Revere reached on an infield single and moved to third on a single through the left side by Humberto Quintero. Pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen’s single gave the Phillies a 3-1 lead and led to Rodriguez being lifted for Vin Mazzaro.
Through much of the early going, both teams struggled with the large strike zone of home-plate umpire Dan Iassogna. A prime example was the first inning, when Sterling Marte opened the game with a walk off Halladay.
Halladay managed to strike out the side despite his 25-pitch first frame. All three strikeouts by Snider, McCutcheon and Garrett Jones were looking as both Snider and McCutcheon took outside corner fastballs for the third strike.
Halladay settled down and threw just 18 pitches over the next two innings to enter the fourth without allowing a hit.
Down 1-0 in the fourth, Jones reached on a two-out walk. Walker was then hit by a pitch and Pedro Alvarez followed with a single into left-center to tie the game at 1. The rally ended as catcher Russell Martin, looking to extend an eight-game hit streak, struck out looking on a high curve. Martin stared down Iassogna to no avail.
Rodriguez’s bumpy night started with a first-inning leadoff single by Jimmy Rollins to left-center. Rollins decided to challenge McCutchen’s arm in center and tried to stretch the single into a double. McCutcheon gunned Rollins down, and that in turn saved a run as Utley followed with a home run into the right-field stands for a 1-0 lead.
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