Pittsburgh Pirates’ A.J. Burnett Strikes Out 10 In Win Over New York Mets
By Larry Snyder
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ A.J. Burnett extended his club record to nine consecutive starts with two runs or less allowed as the Bucs defeated the New York Mets Saturday 8-2 at PNC Park.
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Burnett (4-1) struck out 10 batters just as Gerrit Cole accomplished Friday night. In addition, the 6-foot-4, 227-pound righthander scattered five hits, surrendered one earned run and walked none in seven innings of work. The 38-year-old delivered 60 of his 96 pitches for strikes in facing 26 batters. It should be noted that the only other Pirates pitcher to fan 10 in a game this season has been Francisco Liriano, who did it Friday, May 8 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Pittsburgh’s offense also gave the fans something to cheer about from the get-go. Andrew McCutchen got the barrage started in the home half of the first when he hit his sixth home run of the season off Mets starter Matt Harvey on a fly ball to center that scored Josh Harrison. The All-Star center fielder went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored.
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Pedro Alvarez collected his eighth home run in the bottom of the second on a fly ball to right center off Harvey. Alvarez was not done as he claimed his seventh double in the fourth on a line drive to right that drove in Jung Ho Kang.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The assault of the scoreboard continued as Burnett helped his own cause with a sacrifice fly to center that brought Alvarez across the plate. Josh Harrison followed that up with his 11th double on a ground ball to right that scored Gregory Polanco and Francisco Cervelli. Both Alvarez and Harrison went 2-for-4 and added two RBI for the Bucs. The only difference was Alvarez scored two runs while Harrison scored one.
The final run for the Pirates came in the seventh when Starling Marte reached base on a throwing error by third baseman Eric Campbell that allowed Sean Rodriguez, who was pinch-running for McCutchen, to score.
Harvey (5-2) absorbed just his second loss of the season as he exited the contest after four innings. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound righthander gave up seven earned runs on six hits. He struck out four, walked two, and permitted the two home runs. The 26-year-old hurled 46 of his 65 pitches for strikes in facing 20 batters.
The Mets run off Burnett came in the fourth off the bat of Daniel Murphy, who grounded into a force out that drove in Juan Lagares. They added their second and final score in the eighth when Ruben Tejada hit his first home run on a fly ball to left center off Pirates’ reliever Antonio Bastardo.
Up Next: The Pirates and Mets wrap up their three-game set Sunday with a pair of lefthanders on the mound. New York will go with Jonathan Niese (3-4, 3.72 ERA/1.49 WHIP) and the Bucs will hand the ball to Francisco Liriano (1-4, 4.15 ERA/1.11 WHIP). The first pitch is set for 1:35 p.m. The contest will be on ROOT Sports Pittsburgh.
From The Clipboard: The game went 2:41 and there were 39,385 in attendance at PNC Park…Lefthander Tony Watson has the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched this season with 14.0 from April 22 to May 20…Coming into Saturday’s matchup, Neil Walker had hit safely in 12 of his last 15 contests…Vance Worley has gone 1-0 with a 2.63 ERA in nine career relief appearances.
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