CHRISTOPHER PANSINO – OVATHLETICS.COM
The Pirates traveled to Arizona yesterday to start their six game road trip.
The Diamondbacks were coming off a home series with San Diego had the same record as the Pirates at 2-1.
Despite the similarity, the Diamondbacks outplayed the Pirates in all aspects of the game in the 9-1 loss.
Pitcher Charlie Morton was red-hot early striking out 5 of the first 6 batters. However, in the third inning Morton cooled off considerably as batters began to catch up with his fastball.
Even pitcher Rodrigo Lopez was able to get a hit off of Morton, only the third in Lopez’s ten seasons.
Morton would struggle in the inning giving up 6 runs including a grand slam to Chris Young. Young would later add an RBI single to match a career high.
Former Pirate Adam LaRoche got his first hit of the season off Morton as well, a two run RBI double to center field. Adam, who was 0-12 going into yesterday’s game, finished the day 2 for 3 with a walk and 3 RBIs.
Morton would continue to struggle with pitch control in the fourth and would be pulled after allowing another two runs to score.
Morton finished the day after 3 and 1/3 with 9 hits, 8 earned runs, 1 walk, and 6 strikeouts.
Meanwhile on offense the Pirate’s bats had their own problems as their only run came off a RBI single by Jeff Clement in the sixth inning.
The Pirates would combine for eight hits, the same they had in yesterday’s loss to the Dodgers, but again failed to capitalize with men in scoring position.
It did not help that Andrew McCutchen had a very poor showing today, going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.
The Pirates drop to 2-2 and will look to regroup with pitcher Dave McCutchen who is slated to start on Saturday.
