Pittsburgh Pirates Take Game 1 Against New York Yankees

The Pittsburgh Pirates are now 7-9 this season

Friday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates started a 3 game weekend series at home with the New York Yankees. In the first trip to PNC Park since 2008 for the Bronx Bombers, the Pirates were victorious.

With the win, the Pittsburgh Pirates snapped a 3 game losing streak. The victory also improved the team’s record to 7-9 on the season. This victory also cooled off the red-hot Yankees.

The Pittsburgh Pirates would strike first in Friday’s victory. Jordy Mercer led off the bottom of the 1st inning with his first home run of the season. Later in the inning, David Freese would collect a RBI single to make it 2-0.

In the bottom of the 2nd, the Bucs extended their lead. Jose Osuna hit a triple to lead off the inning for his first career hit. Josh Bell then hit his second home run of the season making it 4-0 Pirates.

Tyler Glasnow made his third start of the season on Friday night. While he lasted just 4 2/3 innings, he pitched better than his final line.

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In 4 2/3 innings of work, he allowed 3 runs, only 1 of which was earned. He walked just 2 batters and struck out 5.

Glasnow appeared to be out of the 5th inning, however, Josh Harrison committed an error that extended the inning. This error led to 2 unearned runs, as well as Glasnow being lifted for Juan Nicasio.

Tyler Glasnow needs to be more efficient than he was on Friday night, but he deserved a better fate. What was an encouraging sign is that despite his control not being as good as it was in his previous start against the Cubs, Glasnow battled through it to get outs and keep the Yankees in check.

With better defense, Glasnow would have allowed just 1 run in 5 innings of work.

Nicasio would pitch 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, followed by a 1-2-3 7th inning from Felipe Rivero.

Entering the bottom of the 7th inning, the Pirates led 4-3. In this inning, they would add to their lead.

With two outs and a man of first Andrew McCutchen popped out to second base. Starlin Castro dropped what should have been a routine out to end the inning. David Freese then delivered a two-run single to make it 6-3 Pirates.

Daniel Hudson came on to pitch the top of the 8th inning. He retired the first two batters of the inning, but then a David Freese error extended the Yankee 8th. Aaron Hicks then collected a base hit to make things hairy. Hudson, however, then struck out ex-Pirate nemesis Matt Holliday to end the inning.

In the 9th inning, Tony Watson recorded his 5th save of the season. He retired the first two batters, he faced, gave up back-to-back singles, and then Watson induced a ground ball off the bat of Aaron Judge to end the game.

Next: Minor League Roundup: April 20

At 4:05 PM tomorrow the Pittsburgh Pirates go for the series victory over the New York Yankees. The Bucs will send Jameson Taillon to the mound, while the Yankees will counter with Michael Pineda. On paper, this looks to be a great pitching matchup.

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