The Pirates opened up the 2013 campaign to the tone of a 3 – 1 setback to the Chicago Cubs. Jeff Samardzija continued his recent dominance against Pirate hitters while A.J. Burnett had a strong showing, as well, in his first Opening Day start of his career. “I was nervous. I hadn’t been nervous in a while, but it was a good nervous. It was a good crowd today and it was fun being a part of it regardless of the outcome.” said Burnett.
A.J. Burnett struck out David DeJesus to start the game off, but allowed a single to left by Starling Castro and a 2-run bomb by Anthony Rizzo to give the Cubs an early 2 – 0 lead. Burnett threw 18 pitches to start his season. “You leave the ball out over the plate and he’s (Rizzo) supposed to hit it out”, said Burnett.
The Pirates looked to be in business in the bottom after Marte led off with a walk, followed by an error by Cubs second baseman, Brent Lillibridge. Andrew McCutchen would then ground into a fielder’s choice moving Marte to third but that’s the farthest he would reach as Alvarez and Sanchez would strike out to end the threat. “He had command of everything out of his hand“, said manager Clint Hurdle, “He can go get 95 – 97mph (fastball), He can drop that breaking ball at 80mph. He made pitches. The last two times we’ve seen him, he’s been very difficult.”
Burnett would then strike out 6 batters over the next two innings before encountering more trouble in the fourth. Nate Schierholtz would walk and Wellington Castillo would follow with a double off the right field wall to make second and third with no out. A.J. would then strikeout Luis Valbuena and Lillibridge before getting Samardzija to ground to third to get out of the jam.
Burnett would give one more run up in the fifth after Castillo doubled in Schierholtz before getting caught trying to stretch it into a triple. Justin Wilson would come in and get the final out to end the bleeding. A.J. would go 5 2/3 while giving up 3 runs (all earned) on 6 hits. He struck out ten which ties a club record for K’s in an Opening Day game. “He punched out 10, 1 walk, he competed. All the things you want to see out of A.J.”, Hurdle added.
Wilson would come back for the 7th inning and strikeout 2 in a perfect inning, Jared Hughes would strikeout 2 as well in the 8th and Mark Melancon would work around a lead-off error to keep the Cubs off the board.
Jeff Samardzija was extremely effective for the Cubs as he went 8 innings of shutout ball while only giving up two hits and striking out nine. Carlos Marmol would come in for the ninth and strike out Jones before hitting Cutch. Cutch would then steal second and score on an Alvarez single to make it 3 -1. Marmol would then walk Gaby Sanchez to put the tying run on forcing Carlos from the game for James Russell.
Walker would line to right for Russell’s only batter setting up a Kyuji Fujikawa – Russel Martin showdown with two out. Fujikawa would get the better of Martin in his major league debut with Martin would flying out to center to end it. Final score: Cubs 3 Pirates 1.
WP: Samardzija (1 – 0)
LP: Burnett (0 – 1)
SV: Fujikawa (1)
Both teams will have tomorrow off and meet back at PNC for a 7:05 tilt on Wednesday night.
