When Francisco Cervelli came to the plate in Monday night’s Pirate game, he as well as the rest of the team’s catchers had not hit a home run all season. That changed with one swing of the bat.
An opposite field three-run home run powered the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-2 series opening win against the Miami Marlins.
Charlie Morton [1-0] made his season debut and allowed three hits to hits first four batters and seven through four. He was able to limit the Marlins to one hit in his last three innings of work.
“I think it was just a relief,” Morton said. “I knew my stuff was pretty good and I was getting a lot of ground balls during my rehab starts. To go out there and do it today was really good for me.”
Morton pitched seven innings and allowed the two runs while striking out three batters on 87 pitches, 63 of which were for strikes.
“I’ve seen Charlie do what he did today a lot of times,” Pedro Alvarez said. “Obviously I know it’s in him, he showcases it time after time and it’s impressive.”
The Marlins scored one run in the first inning on a Giancarlo Stanton single but were limited to the one run as Justin Bour grounded into a double play.
Ground outs were a theme for the Marlins against Morton as they had 16 grounders and no fly outs.
Cervelli’s three-run home run placed the Pirates in the lead. It was the first home run surrendered this season by Marlins starter David Phelps [2-2].
Stanton who ended the Pirates scoring in the second inning with a leaping grab at the Clemente Wall then hit his 13th home run of the season over the same right field wall to cut the deficit to one run.
Pedro Alvarez added a home run his ninth of the season in the sixth inning. His fast line drive just cleared the wall in left field.
“You’re not going to hit a ball any harder than that,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “I think I’ve seen two other left-handers take a ball there and hit it that hard to left-center field. One was [Carlos] Gonzalez with Colorado and [Adrian] Gonzalez then with Boston.”
The Pirates had an additional opportunity to score in the eighth inning when Starling Marte singled and Neil Walker doubled however third base coach Rick Sofield sent Marte on the Walker play and he was thrown out. Alvarez then grounded out ending the threat.
Tony Watson pitched a shutout eighth inning earning his ninth hold of the season and Mark Melancon did the same in the ninth earning his 11th save of the season and 60th of his Pirates career which places him one behind Stan Belinda for seventh on the all-time list.
“We’re playing the kind of baseball we’re capable of,” said Hurdle. “We have to play hungry, this is the ’15 team that hadn’t established its identity through 40 games. We needed to take it upon ourselves to do something collectively.”
The series will continue Tuesday at Jeff Locke [2-2 5.28 ERA] takes on Jose Urena [4-0 1.21 ERA Triple-A New Orleans]. The start will be Urena’s first in the major leagues. Locke is 1-2 with a 3.62 ERA in five career starts against the Marlins.
