Pittsburgh– After 17 combined runs, 24 combined hits and 2 1/3 combined innings by both starters, a Tony Sanchez one-out RBI single proved to be the winner as the Pirates (19-26) fought off the Orioles 9-8 on Wednesday night.
Starters Wandy Rodriguez and Chris Tillman both failed to get out of the second inning as both teams combined for 14 runs in 2 1/3 innings of play. The Pirates struck first in the first with RBI’s by Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte (2 RBI) and Ike Davis. The Orioles responded immediately against Rodriguez with a lead-off homer by Nelson Cruz. A throwing error by Wandy loaded the bases with one out which allowed Baltimore to tack on four more runs to take a brief 6-4 lead.
“I got confused on that play,” said Rodriguez. “I tried to catch it and I was out of balance when I threw it to first.”
Wandy was removed with two out in the inning and Vin Mazzaro recorded a quick third out with runners on second and third.
“I feel no pressure,” said Rodriguez. “My goal is to compete and keep up what he has. Sometimes it doesn’t work the same way but I don’t feel pressure. Last year I couldn’t pitch because I was on the DL. This year, the knees are bothering me again and now my performance today is frustrating.”
The Pirates immediately got the lead back as the first four Bucs to stand in reached base to chase Tillman. Davis then added another RBI single off of Brad Brach and Jordy Mercer grounded into a double play to score the final run of the inning.
From that point on, it turned back into a baseball game as both bullpens slowed play down. Vin Mazzaro and Brach pitched multiple scoreless innings before the Orioles tied things up in the seventh off of Justin Wilson, who was working into his second inning of relief.
Wilson allowed a lead-off double by Chris Davis forcing Clint Hurdle out to bring in Bryan Morris. Morris wasn’t as effective as he allowed two runs to score to tie the game before getting an inning-ending strikeout with the bases loaded.
The Pirates, once again, came right back — reminiscent of the 1979 World Series team who was honored prior to the game — as Starling Marte started the inning off with his second bunt single of the night. He moved to third on an Ike Davis opposite-field single and scored on Sanchez’s single to right.
“He started me off with a first-pitch slider which, thank God, I laid off,” said Sanchez. “We all know my plate discipline isn’t that good, but then he tried to go with the backdoor two-seamer and it was the perfect pitch for me to drive to right field and it kinda worked out exactly because I had been replaying that kind of swing the entire batting practice. I spent the whole batting practice trying to hit the four-hole and stay through the ball and let the ball get deep and he threw that backdoor two-seamer and I was able to do that with that pitch.”
Tony Watson and Mark Melancon (7th save) worked perfect innings with two strikeouts apiece to close things out.
Clint Hurdle didn’t comment when asked about the status of Rodriguez.
“I’m not even going to go there, right now,” said Hurdle. “We’ll go talk about a lot of things when we get in there.”
Final Score: Pirates 9, Orioles 8
Starters Lines
Rodriguez (ND): 1 2/3 IN, 7 H, 6 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 HR. 61 Pitches (37 Strikes).
Tillman (ND): 1+ IN, 6 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 K. 44 Pitches (23 Strikes).
The Pirates will begin a four-game series with the Washington Nationals beginning tomorrow night.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) Edinson Volquez (PIT): 1-4, 4.71 ERA
(RHP) Blake Treinen (WAS): 0-1, 0.77 ERA
First pitch is set for 7:05.
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(Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
