PNC Park — At 1:14 pm under clear skies, Francisco Liriano threw a strike to Emilio Bonifacio to kick off the 128th season of the Pittsburgh Baseball Club. Liriano would continue where he left off last postseason with a 4-hit, 10 strikeout performance (No decision) and Neil Walker hit a walk-off home run in the tenth inning for a Pirates 1-0 victory.
It was a pitchers duel until the Cubs threatened in the fifth when Nate Schierholtz led off with a single and Darwin Barney followed with a walk. Samardzjia would come up to sacrifice the runners over, but placed the bunt back to Liriano to start a 1 -5 -4 double play. The out at first would be challenged by Cubs manager, Rick Renteria, but the call would stand. It was the first regular season replay challenge in MLB history.
“I got a little fatigued,” said Liriano. “I wasn’t trying to do too much. Just make them hit the ball and everyone made good plays behind me. I like the replay. It’s going to be better for everybody and it’s worked so far, so good.”
The same thing would happen in the sixth, but Liriano would take care of business himself as he struck out Anthony Rizzo –3 K’s on the day –, Wellington Castillo and would get Mike Olt to fly out to escape the jam and end his day.
“He made his best pitches in the deepest counts, especially in the last two innings,” said manager, Clint Hurdle. “He finished very, very strong, he competed very well. The fastball command was less than 50/50 for him which complicated things, but he has other weapons to stay in play and get outs in big situations.”
Tony Watson would relieve Liriano with a perfect seventh and Mark Melancon would avoid trouble after allowing a leadoff double in the eighth.
The Pirates were unable to get a runner to third against Samardzija as he matched Liriano inning-by-inning. They would however, walk-off in extras as Neil Walker sent a Carlos Villanueva 3-2 pitch into the Clemente seats for the 1-0 victory. It was the Pittsburgh native’s first major league walk-off.
“Well, I’ve hit enough first-row homers over the Clemente wall to know that the ball was going to be gone.,” said Walker. “The ball wasn’t carrying great today, a couple of balls Marte hit, he hit them pretty well and they didn’t come close to leaving the yard, but I was just happy to help the team win.”
Bryan Morris, who pitched the top of the tenth, will be credited for the victory.
Final Score: Pirates 1, Cubs 0.
Starter’s Lines
Liriano (ND) : 6 IN, 4 H, 3 BB, 10 K’s. 104 Pitches (60 Strikes)
Samardzija (ND): 7 IN, 5 H, 2 BB, 3 K’s. 89 Pitches (54 Strikes)
The Pirates have an off day before picking the series back up at 7:05 on Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s Starters
(RHP) Charlie Morton (PIT) : 7-4, 3.26 ERA in 2013
(RHP) Edwin Jackson (CHI/N) 8-18, 4.98 ERA in 2013)
