Pittsburgh Pirates Shut Out By Mets In Series Finale
By Larry Snyder
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ inability to hit with runners on did them in for the second game in a row as the Mets shut them out 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon at Citi Field in New York.
The Bucs put up an 0-for-7 result with players in scoring position, making them 1 for 14 in the last two games. Clint Hurdle‘s crew left eight runners stranded on Wednesday for a total of 32 during the entire three-game series.
New York got a solid effort from 41-year-old Bartolo Colon as he threw 7 1/3 scoreless innings of five-hit ball to pick up his fourth win of the season. The veteran righthander put up a season-high nine strikeouts while walking only one on 121 pitches.
In the sixth inning, when Colon fanned Ike Davis, it was the 2,000th strikeout of his career. Jeurys Familia closed the door over the final 1 2/3 innings as the righthander claimed his first save of the season.
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Pirates’ starter Charlie Morton allowed three runs, two of which were earned, on four hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings of work. It matched the shortest start of his season. The righthander struck out four on 104 pitches in absorbing his seventh loss of the season.
Morton allowed the Mets’ first run in the second inning. He walked Lucas Duda, who made it to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a Ruben Tejada groundout. Duda came home after Morton grounded another ball to the backstop while pitching to Colon with two outs.
In the third, Daniel Murphy tapped a soft grounder to Pedro Alvarez, whose throw to first got past Davis and bounced off New York’s dugout. A good throw from Neil Walker, who was backing up the play, was wasted when shortstop Jordy Mercer dropped the ball, which trickled into center field. That allowed Murphy to scamper to third. David Wright singled him home just three pitches later.
Wright was not done as he sent a solo blast to left-center for his fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth.
Hurdle went with righthanders Jared Hughes and Bryan Morris out of the bullpen to try to regain control of the game. Hughes stopped the bleeding for 2/3’s of an inning in the sixth, while Morris gave up two earned runs on a two-run homer to Duda in the bottom of the eighth.
Up next for the Pirates is a four-game series with the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Game 1 will be at 10:10 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday. Los Angeles will send righthander Dan Haren (5-3, 3.16 ERA) to the mound while the Pirates will counter with Gerrit Cole (4-3, 3.76 ERA).
The 23-year-old righthander will be making his 11th start of the season on Thursday night. He has pitched at least six innings in eight of his first 10 assignments. The game will be broadcast by ROOT Sports Pittsburgh.