Coming off a 5-1 homestand following the All-Star break, the Pittsburgh Pirates (54-48) cooled off and lost the series opener to the Colorado Rockies (42-60) 8-1 on Friday night in Denver.
Brett Anderson (1-3) earned his first win of the season, throwing 6 1/3 innings of shutout baseball before being removed from the game with a finger blister. He allowed just two hits and mixed in four walks throughout the outing, three of which were issued to Pirates catcher Russell Martin.
Charlie Morton (5-10) suffered his team-high tenth loss of the season, again receiving no run support until it was too little, too late. Morton allowed a run-scoring double to Josh Rutledge in the third inning for an early 1-0 deficit, but kept it at that until running into trouble in the seventh. He left without recording an out in the seventh after allowing the first three batters in that inning to reach. Ernesto Frieri allowed both inherited runners to score and really let the game get away, allowing four runs of his own on three hits and a walk. Carlos Gonzalez homered off Frieri to make it 8-0, capping off a seven run seventh for the home team.
Morton finished with six-plus innings, four runs allowed on seven hits and one walk. He struck out three and has just a 3.40 ERA on the season despite the double digits in losses.
In the ninth inning, Rockies reliever Matt Belisle only got one out on a deep sacrifice fly RBI by Jordy Mercer while allowing two hits and walking two Pirates batters. After losing the shutout, it took a pitching change to Adam Ottavino to close out the game for the Rockies. Belisle was the losing pitcher in two of the three games last weekend at PNC Park.
Rutledge finished the game 2-4 with four RBI for Colorado. Four Rockies had multiple hits, while the Pirates had just five in the game. The series continues tomorrow at Coors Field at 8:10 when lefty Jeff Locke (2-1) takes on lefty Tyler Matzek (1-4) in a rematch of Sunday’s series finale in Pittsburgh.
