Pittsburgh Pirates, Liriano pound Chicago White Sox 11-0

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4. Final. 0. 128. 11

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ offense came alive Monday night after a few quiet games in a pounding of the Chicago White Sox 11-0 on the back of another masterpiece by Francisco Liriano. Franky tossed eight innings of shutout baseball, limiting the White Sox to just two hits while striking out 12. The win brings Liriano to 4-5 on the year and moves the Pirates to 36-27 overall.

The Pirates welcomed White Sox’ starter Carlos Rodon to Pittsburgh by scoring five runs off of him in the first inning before registering an out. Josh Harrison walked and moved to second on Starling Marte‘s infield single. Both runners took another base on a wild pitch from Rodon. Andrew McCutchen roped a ball to left field that scored Harrison and moved Marte to third. The hits kept coming when Jung Ho Kang singled and scored Marte and Francisco Cervelli followed that with his first triple of the year, bringing in both McCutchen and Kang. Jose Tabata singled to plate Cervelli, giving Liriano more than enough runs for the night.

More runs were added in the fourth inning when Jordy Mercer doubled and scored on a single from Harrison. Rodon’s night was done at this point and Daniel Webb had the unfortunate duty of coming into the game to replace him. Harrison stole second and came around to score on Marte’s single, giving the Pirates a 7-0 lead heading into the fifth inning.

Kang and Cervelli both walked to start the fifth inning. Mercer would double off of Hector Noesi to score Kang and add another run to the Pirates already large lead.

The Pirates kept their foot on the gas during the sixth inning when Marte doubled to right and scored Harrison. Marte was able to then score on a throwing error by third baseman Gordon Beckham. After McCutchen doubled, Kang sent another double to the outfield that allowed McCutchen to score, giving the Pirates an 11-0 lead after just six innings.

Liriano stayed in for the next two innings and then handed the ball over to Rob Scahill, who closed out the game with a clean ninth inning.

What Stood Out

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Everything was clicking for the Pirates last in the first game of the series. Liriano threw an absolute gem and kept the Chicago hitters off balance all night. At no point were the White Sox able to mount any kind of real threat. He continues to impress when he is given the ball and his win-loss record is certainly not indicative of the outings he has had in 2015.

Obviously the offense stood out as well. After a string of games where the Pirates were unable to score many (and some times no) runs, it was great to see everything clicking. Harrison and Marte accounted for eight of the 18 hits on the night and all of the starters outside of Sean Rodriguez, who was held hitless, recorded at least two hits. This kind of production cannot be expected every night, but when the offense is clicking it is a thing of beauty.

What’s Next

The second game in Pittsburgh between the Pittsburgh Pirates (26-27) and the Chicago White Sox (28-34) will take place Tuesday night at 7:05 PM. Charlie Morton (4-0, 2.05 ERA) will look to stay undefeated as he will be opposed by Jose Quintana (3-6, 4.00 ERA). Quintana is not a hard thrower and does not strike out many batters, but his pinpoint control has, for the most part, kept him from having many disaster starts so far in 2015.

Next: Pittsburgh Pirates Minor League Report - June 15th