Edinson Volquez continued to impress as he held the Brewers hot offensive attack to only 2 runs over 7 innings of work and the Pirate bats came alive once again in a 11-2 Pirate victory on Thursday night.
Volquez didn’t have the best start to the game as he allowed a lead-off single — the seventh in seven games at PNC Park by opposing lead-off hitters — to Carlos Gomez. Gomez would then score three batters later on an Aramis Ramirez RBI single. The righty would experience more trouble in the third when Ryan Braun doubled to start the inning and scored on a Jonathan Lucroy RBI single.
It would be the only damage done however, as Volquez was able to stop the bleeding at one run for both innings. He would settle down after the third and allow one baserunner — a Lucroy single in the sixth — over the next four innings of work.
“It was good to keep all of my pitches down and my breaking balls,” said Volquez. ” I stayed deep in the game and didn’t waste many pitches.”
Volquez retired 20 batters on three pitches or less which played a large role in his success against the Brewers. He is 23-8 against NL Central opponents in his career.
“We were working in spring training to get ahead in the counts early,” said Volquez. “This is what I bring to the game. It is more easy for me to stay in the game longer and not walk too many people.”
The Pirates would break through against the bullpen in the seventh. Jordy Mercer led the inning off with a single and pinch-hitter Josh Harrison followed with his second pinch-hit home run of the season to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead. Harrison had failed to lay a bunt down the previous two pitches before hitting it out.
“Once they took the bunt sign off, I had to battle,” said Harrison. “Knowing this field and being here a while, I know hitting it down the line you got a pretty good chance and I felt pretty good about that one coming off the bat. Thank God I was put in a position to help the team. I didn’t get the bunt down, but baseball is a game of adjustments. You gotta go from one extreme to the other sometimes.”
The floodgates would open against rookie Wei-Chang Wang as Gaby Sanchez (RBI) and Pedro Alvarez (3RBI) homered and Jose Tabata and Russell Martin provided RBI singles to balloon the lead to 11-2.
“Jordy Started it off with a single the other way and then you get a very unorthodox pinch-hit two-run homer and then were able to add on, obviously. The at bats stayed crisp against Wooten and then we were able to take advantage of the young left hander. He wasn’t able to locate the ball which we had seen him be able to locate it a little bit in one outing, but when you miss location up here, there’s a fine line. Once you start hitting, the confidence can rise and the swings were steady.”
Mark Melancon and Bryan Morris would work clean innings to finish things off.
Final Score: Pirates 11, Brewers 2.
Starter’s Lines
Volquez (W, 1-0): 7 IN, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K’s, 1 WP. 77 Pitches (53 Strikes).
Gallardo (ND): 6 IN, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K’s, 1 WP, 1 HR. 114 Pitches (67 Strikes).
These two will be back at it tomorrow night in the second game of the four-game set at 7:05.
Tomorrow’s Starters
(RHP) Charlie Morton (PIT): 0-1, 3.32 ERA
(RHP) Kyle Lohse (MIL): 2-1, 3.05 ERA
(Photo Credit: Getty)
