(Photo Credit: Keith Srakocic / AP)
PNC Park — Adam Eaton singled home two in the 16th inning off of Kris Johnson, who was making his ML debut and pitched 6 innings in extras, to give the Diamondbacks the series victory with a 4 – 2 win.
Charlie Morton started the game for the Bucs and retired the first four batters he faced by way of strikeout en route to five shutout innings. He would get into trouble in the sixth when he loaded the bases with no out. Aaron Hill would then single and Geraldo Parra would ground into a double play to score the other run for Morton’s only blemishes in the contest. He would go back out for the seventh inning and work his way out of a one out bases loaded jam without further damage.
The Pirates would score two early runs to take the lead when Andrew McCutchen walked in the first and scored on a Russell Martin double. Cutch would end up going 1-for-4 with three walks (2 intentional) and a run. Starling Marte would single with one out in the third and score on a Jordy Mercer double.
The Bucs had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the eighth against Diamondbacks starter, Wade Miley, when Marte led off with a single. Instead of letting Mercer (who was 2-for-3 at that point against Miley) hit, manager, Clint Hurdle chose for Mercer to sac bunt Marte to second. Miley would then intentionally walk Cutch and get Martin to strike out swinging. Marte would get thrown out trying to steal third on the strikeout to end the threat.
They had another shot in the twelfth inning when Neil Walker led the inning off with a walk. He would move to second on a sac bunt and to third when Mercer was walked and Cutch was intentionally walked for the third time. That would bring up Martin for his second chance to be the hero, but he flew out to right to end the inning.
An extra inning game was not what the Pirates wanted as their bullpen had been taxed as it was, so they turned to Kris Johnson, who had been called up earlier in the day from AAA Indianapolis and came in for the eleventh inning for his major league debut. He would work five innings of three hit shutout ball while striking out five before allowing the decisive runs in the sixteenth. He walked A.J. Pollock to start the inning and moved to second on a Didi Gregorius single. They would both move up 90 feet by way of a groundout and score on a two out two RBI double by Adam Eaton which landed just under the sliding effort of Andrew McCutchen.
Pittsburgh had one final chance in the bottom when Garrett Jones walked with one out. Walker would then be intentionally walked with two out bringing up Johnson, who had to hit due to no bench players left. Johnson would work a 2 – 2 count before striking out to end the four hour, thirty nine minute contest.
Final Score: Diamondbacks 4, Pirates 2
The Cardinals and Reds both won dropping Pittsburgh to one game up on St. Louis in the division and 2 1/2 on the Reds for the first wild card. Arizona pulls within 7 1/2 of the Pirates for the second wild card.
The Bucs will now travel to San Diego for a three game set against the Padres before going to San Francisco for four.
Follow Travis for Pirates news and in-game updates on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @OVAthletics
