Gregory Polanco and Ike Davis each broke out their slumps in style going a combined 5-for-9 with two home runs and five RBI as the Pirates defeated the Dodgers 12-7 on Tuesday night.
After a back-and-forth contest through 5 1/2 innings, the Pirates (53-47) finally broke through for good in the bottom of the sixth. Russell Martin and Ike Davis started the inning with singles and advanced 90-feet on a Josh Harrison sac bunt. After a strikeout and a walk to load the bases, Polanco worked the count full and sent a Jamie Wright fastball into left field to give the Pirates the lead.
“I just tried to put the ball in play,” Polanco said. “I just stayed with my approach and didn’t try too much in that situation and see what happens.”
Travis Snider added a RBI in the inning and Polanco scored on a wild pitch.
Andrew McCutchen was hit by a pitch high on the right shoulder in the inning beginning a bean-ball war. Justin Wilson followed by nearly hitting then hitting Justin Turner to get himself ejected. Manager Clint Hurdle was also ejected arguing the call. Wright followed in the bottom of the inning by hitting Martin square in the back on a bad curveball. No warnings, ejections or bench clearings occurred.
“I think the umpires job it to judge intent,” said Hurdle. “There’s a mound visit with McCutchen at the plate and a base open and a ball is thrown upper-body at his back shoulder and there was no intent judged on that and he goes to first base. I mean, Wilson is trying to pitch hard in. He always pitches hard in and they judged it was intentional, so they didn’t want to heed a warning. They just threw him out.”
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly agreed with Hurdle on the surprising ejection.
“I think we all understand what happened there,” Mattingly said. “It was not a big deal. I think the only guy that probably didn’t handle it was the home plate umpire. He could of let that go and given warnings and it would have been over.”
The Dodgers (56-46) capitalized on the Wilson HBP when Adrian Gonzalez followed with a home run to right-center. Scott Van Slyke — son of former Pirate Andy Van Slyke– hit a deep solo shot into the left field bleachers in the eighth to bring the Dodgers to within one, but the Pirates once again pulled away with four in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a Martin 2-RBI single.
Ernesto Frieri pitched a scoreless ninth to close things out.
Neil Walker, Davis and Polanco provided solo home runs to help the Pirate effort.
“We just kept playing,” Hurdle said. “We kept adding on, we kept scoring, we kept playing and controlling what we could control when we got into the dugout and when we took our at bats and we got enough pitching.”
Final Score: Pirates 12, Dodgers 7.
Starters Lines
Worley (W, 3-1): 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K’s. 98 Pitches (69 Strikes).
Beckett (ND): 3 2/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 K’s, 3 HR, 1 HBP. 69 Pitches (45 Strikes).
The Pirates will look for the series victory tomorrow evening.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(LHP) Francisco Liriano (PIT): 1-7, 4.43 ERA
(RHP) Dan Haren (LAD): 8-7, 4.30 ERA
First pitch is set for 7:05.
(Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
