The Pirates now know how the Phillies felt in the opening series of the season. The Pirates delivered two walk-off victories, one in extra innings and one with two outs in the ninth, against their cross-state rival. In a road trip that has been anything but kind to the Pirates, they found themselves on the opposite side of a walk-off. This time instead of celebrating, the Pirates would walk off the field as the San Francisco Giants would jump up-and-down in unison after their 4-3 walk-off victory over the Pirates. The loss now drops the Pirates to 2-6 and extends the losing streak to five games.
The night started off with a bang for the Pirates as Neil Walker recorded his first two RBIs of the season, as he drove in Andrew McCutchen and Casey McGehee to give the Pirates an early 2-0 on Giants’ starter Barry Zito. It was just their second lead of the entire season. The Giants quickly came back as they evened the score in the bottom of the second with an RBI triple by Nate Schierholtz, who would later be driven in by an Emmanuel Burriss single.
Both teams would add a run in odd fashion in the fifth as after an Alex Presley single, a routine Jose Tabata grounder would get past Pablo Sandoval at third, allowing Presley to advance to third. Giants’ shortstop would then commit the second error of the play attempting to throw out Tabata at second base, allowing Presley to score. With two out in the bottom of the frame, Sandoval hit a comeback shot to Pirates’ starter Charlie Morton, which ricocheted off of him allowing Angel Pagan to score after his triple.
The game would remain squared at five each until the ninth inning. After a successful three innings of only one-hit ball by the combination of Tony Watson, Juan Cruz and Jason Grilli, the Pirates would turn to Chris Resop in the ninth inning. After back-to-back singles to lead off the frame by Burriss and pinch-hitter Ryan Theriot, the Pirates would elect to walk Pagan to load the bases for Melky Cabrera. After the seventh pitch of the at bat, Cabrera hit a sharp grounder to Clint Barmes at shorstop. Barmes, who was playing shallow along with the rest of the infield, rushed a throw home that catcher Rod Barajas couldn’t handle, ending the game.
For Morton, it was his first start of the season after spending the first week on the disabled list. It was announced before the game that Matt Hague was assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis to make room for Morton on the roster. Morton got into trouble early, but pitched well throughout the game. He gave up three runs on sevens hits over five innings, while striking out two. He didn’t factor in the decision.
Taking the loss for the Pirates was right-handed reliever Chris Resop, his first of the season. The victory went to the former Pirate, Javier Lopez, his first on the season.
The Pirates and Giants will conclude their series at 4:05 p.m. ET tomorrow evening. The probable pitchers are Kevin Correia (0-0, 1.50 ERA) for the Pirates and Ryan Vogelson (0-0, 0-00 ERA) for the Giants.
Photo credits: Getty Images
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