Francisco Liriano dug the Pirates an early hole that they couldn’t get out of as the Nationals (25-25) avoided the four-game sweep with a 5-2 victory over the Pirates (22-27) on Sunday afternoon.
Liriano’s struggles began right away as he allowed a lead off double to Denard Span and a walk to Anthony Rendon. Liriano retired the next two batters, but allowed Span to score on a wild pitch and Rendon on a RBI single by Ian Desmond.
Liriano settled down through innings 2-4 before getting into more trouble in the fifth with the same guys. Span started the inning with a single and scored on Rendon’s triple off of the right-center field wall. Josh Harrison came within inches of making the play, but was unable to corral the ball. Rendon then scored on Liriano’s second wild pitch of the day.
“The consistency drawn out over the five innings was not there,” said manager Clint Hurdle. “The challenging part of this game sometimes is you’re a pitch or two away from pushing through, maybe getting on a positive roll.”
Liriano was clearly perturbed after the game when conducting his postgame interview with reporters.
“It’s frustrating,” said Liriano. “I feel like I’m not doing my job and not going deep in the game and not keeping the team in the game.”
Josh Harrison tried to start a rally in the sixth when he led off the inning with a homer into the Nationals bullpen. Andrew McCutchen and Ike Davis followed with one out base hits causing Nationals manager Matt Williams to go to the bullpen to face Starling Marte. Marte then grounded into an inning-ending double play on the first pitch from reliever Craig Stammen to end the threat.
The Pirates had one more threat in them in the eighth. With one out, Harrison and Neil Walker singled before McCutchen struck out for the second out of the inning. Ike Davis followed with a RBI single, but it would be all the Bucs got as Marte followed with a strikeout on three straight pitches.
“It’s a team game,” said Hurdle. “We had three innings: six, seven and eight with opportunities to push things across and only came up with two. We had the guys up you’d like to have up in those situations.”
Rafael Soriano closed things out for the Nationals with a perfect ninth.
Final Score: Nationals 5, Pirates 2
Starters Lines
Liriano (L, 0-5): 5 IN, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 5 K’s, 2 WP. 98 Pitches (56 Strikes).
Fister (W, 2-1): 5 1/3 IN, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 K’s, 1 HR. 83 Pitches (57 Strikes).
The Pirates will now head to New York to take on the Mets before heading to the West Coast for the first of two trips out that way.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
