The 39,933 fans that sold out PNC Park already were excited to see their Pittsburgh Pirates return for the first time since a Wild Card loss, but a Josh Harrison first pitch home run in addition to Gerrit Cole’s pitching provided the ingredients to a 5-4 home opener victory over the Detroit Tigers Monday.
Harrison’s home run came in the bottom of the first after Cole pitched a hitless 13-pitch first inning. Anibal Sanchez [1-1] gave up his first run of the season on the homer and it came on a 91 mile-per-hour cutter that cleared the center field fence. It was the first home run of the season for the recently extended Harrison. Harrison has started the season reaching base safely in five of his first six games and was the lone Pirate to record a multi-hit game raising his batting average to .217.
The Pirates tacked on a second run in the third inning. Harrison started the inning with a single and the next batter, Gregory Polanco doubled to put two runners in scoring position. The next batter was Andrew McCutchen. Coming off a four RBI game Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers, McCutchen hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 2-0 Pirates.
Cole had a dominant outing retiring nine consecutive Tigers batters, a streak that started and ended with catcher Alex Avila. Avila recorded the third out of the second inning with a ground out and walked with two outs in the top of the fifth inning.
Cole dominated the Tigers through six innings holding them to one hit and striking out eight batters. He would not be able to get out of the seventh inning however a Miguel Cabrera single, a J.D. Martinez walk and Yoenis Cespedes single ending a seven pitch at-bat loaded the bases and removed Cole from the game.
Jared Hughes relieved Cole and made his fourth appearance of the season. On his first pitch, a 92 mile-per-hour sinker, Nick Castellanos grounded into a double play which scored Cabrera. The next batter Avila, popped out to end the seventh inning. Since the start of the 2014 season, Hughes has allowed two of the 40 runners he has inherited to score.
Cole’s final line was 6-plus innings pitched, three hits, one run, two walks and eight strikeouts over the course of 94 pitches, 63 of which were strikes. With the win, Cole [1-0] moves to 7-2 against the Detroit Tigers in his 12 starts against the team.
The Pirates bats broke out in the seventh inning starting with Pedro Alvarez hitting the first pitch he saw, an 84 mile-per-hour slider from Sanchez over the center field wall. It was his third home run of the season. Alvarez is batting .304 on the season.
The inning continued when the next batter Francisco Cervelli singles and advanced to second base on a Jordy Mercer sacrifice bunt. Corey Hart then came in to pinch-hit. Previously as a pinch hitter this season Hart was 2-for-2 with two RBI with two swings of the bat. Hart continued his tear hitting a home run over the left-center field wall. The two run home run was the 1,000th hit of Hart’s career and removed Sanchez from the game.
Tony Watson needed 10 pitches to get out of the eighth inning in his appearance. Watson threw eight strikes and struck out two batters lowering his ERA to 5.40.
Mark Melancon entered the game in a non-save situation in the ninth inning and allowed lead-off hitter Ian Kinsler to reach base. A throw from Starling Marte was in time to tag Kinsler however the throw was low and Neil Walker was unable to retrieve it. A batter later, Miguel Cabrera doubled to cut the deficit to three runs and Walker again had trouble with a throw this one high from left field and deflecting off his glove. Martinez then hit an opposite field home run, his fourth of the season over the Clemente Wall.
After a mound discussion, Cespedes got a single past Harrison and represented the game-tying run. Castellanos then grounded into his second consecutive double play. Victor Martinez came in to pinch-hit
The Pirates now move to 74-55 all-time in home openers, 6-9 at PNC Park and 3-4 on the season. The Pirates have won two consecutive home openers. This is the Tigers first loss of the season after a 6-0 start to the season. The 39,933 fans represented a regular season record for PNC Park.
This series will continue Tuesday when Shane Greene [1-0 0.00 ERA] takes on A.J. Burnett [0-0 3.38 ERA]. Burnett is 6-2 against the Tigers winning five of his past six regular season starts against them.
Photo courtesy: Michael E. Keating/AP
