Starling Marte stepped to the plate Sunday as a .301 hitter in the cleanup spot of the lineup, he ended up touching home after a three-run home run off New York Mets reliever Erik Goeddel. This after Goeddel intentionally walked Andrew McCutchen.
“Pick your poison, that’s the way I look at it,” McCutchen said.
The Pittsburgh Pirates earned their third sweep of the season and second at PNC Park after a 9-1 victory against the Mets in front of a sellout crowd of 37,784 at PNC Park Sunday afternoon.
“We needed this weekend, we played good team ball this weekend,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Everyone threw something in.”
Francisco Liriano [2-4] recovered from his two-inning outing Tuesday to set a personal PNC Park record of 12 strikeouts, which also represents a season high.
“It was the start he needed and it was the start we needed from him,” said Hurdle.
Liriano pitched six innings allowing one run on six hits while walking two batters on a season-high 112 pitches.
“My game plan wasn’t thinking of getting strikeouts it was just giving my team a chance to win,” Liriano said.
His biggest test came in the second inning when after a John Mayberry Jr. double two Mets were in scoring position. Liriano ended up striking out the next three batters to end the threat.
The Pirates struck first in the fourth inning off Mets starting pitcher Jonathon Niese [3-5]. Francisco Cervelli had a one-out single and scored when Jordy Mercer hit his fourth double of the season which hit off the left field wall.
A Wilmer Torres RBI single tied the game for the Mets, however the Pirates responded with a three-run fifth inning.
Jose Tabata walked to open the inning and then Andrew McCutchen hit his seventh home run of the season. It was his second consecutive game with a homer and both landed into the bullpen area. His home run is the 135 of his career, which tied him with Al Oliver for 11th in team history. He is one homer away from tying Kevin Young for 10th.
In all six day games played at PNC Park, the Pirates have homered on at least one occasion.
Cervell put the Pirates in front 4-1 when his single dropped in shallow left field. This scored Jung Ho Kang and also removed Niese from the game.
The Pirates had another three-run inning in the sixth on the Marte home run and scored two in the seventh.
“He’s that guy that can take some swings that make you go, ‘Huh’,” said Hurdle. “Then before you know it he’s trotting around the bases.”
Josh Harrison extended his hitting streak to 11 games after a sacrifice fly to deep center field. This is the longest Pirates hitting streak of the season. Corey Hart then came in to pinch-hit for Tabata and singled.
Tony Watson pitched the eighth inning for the Pirates and Arquimedes Caminero finished the game throwing the ninth inning.
Combined with Gerrit Cole and A.J. Burnett’s performances earlier in this series, this weekend marked the third time since 1900 that three Pirates starting pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters. The last time was September 1969 when Bob Veale, Bob Moose and Dock Ellis accomplished the feat. This was done September 11 and then in a doubleheader September 12.
In this series, the Pirates outscored the Mets by a 21-4 margin.
“We have a good offense, we just haven’t put it in play consistently,” said Hurdle. “The team we just played had the second best ERA in the league coming in and they don’t give those away. We showed up on the other side of the ball. You can know what you’re capable of doing, you’ve just got to go out and do it.”
The Pirates now have an overall record of 21-22. Charlie Morton will make his season debut for the Pirates against David Phelps [2-1 3.21 ERA] and the Miami Marlins. Morton is 5-3 with a 4.03 ERA in 10 career starts against the Marlins.
