Pittsburgh Pirates Walk Off Milwaukee Brewers

The Pittsburgh Pirates were walk off winners on Saturday night

Saturday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates were going for a series victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. This is exactly what the Pirates would get.

It took 10 innings, but the Bucs recorded their second walk off victory of the season on Saturday night. With the win, the Pirates are now 14-16 this season. They will now go for the sweep of the Brewers on Sunday afternoon.

Gerrit Cole started for the Pirates on Saturday night and was fantastic. This was Cole’s 5th consecutive great start after a pair of mediocre ones to start his 2017 campaign.

In 7 innings pitched on Saturday night Cole allowed just 1 run on 2 hits, 2 walks, and he struck out 8. Gerrit Cole has now allowed 2 earned runs or less in each of his past 5 starts. He has also struck out 36 batters in 32 innings pitched in these 5 starts.

In the bottom of the second inning, Francisco Cervelli and John Jaso hit back-to-back doubles with one out. However, due to poor base running by Cervelli he failed to score on Jaso’s double. This gave the Bucs runners on second and third with just one out for Jordy Mercer.

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Jordy Mercer would do his job by hitting a fly ball to left field. This fly ball should have been a sacrifice fly to score Cervelli and make it 1-0 Pirates. Unfortunately, John Jaso thought there were two outs which led to him taking off on contact and making it an easy inning-ending 7-4 double play for the Brewers.

The Brewers would strike first in the top of the 4th inning. Hernan Perez hit a home run to lead off the inning. His 4th home run of the season made it 1-0 Milwaukee.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, the Pirates would get that run right back. Josh Bell doubled to lead off the inning and advanced to third base on a fly out by Andrew McCutchen. This led to a RBI ground out by Gregory Polanco to tie the game at 1 after 4 innings.

In the bottom of the 6th inning, the Pirates had a chance to bust the game open. Gerrit Cole, Josh Harrison, and Josh Bell hit three consecutive singles to start the inning. This loaded the bases with no one out for Andrew McCutchen.

McCutchen would hit a ground ball to third base that turned into a 5-2-5 double play. This kept the game tied at 1, and gave the Pirates runners on first and second with two outs. Gregory Polanco then grounded out to second base to end the inning.

Milwaukee starting pitcher Matt Garza was in trouble for much of the night. In 7 innings pitched he allowed 8 hits but held the Pirates to just one run. He also was able to work around a 20 pitch first inning.

Felipe Rivero took over for Gerrit Cole in the top of the 8th inning. He would go on to strikeout the side in order. Rivero now has 19 strikeouts and a 2.49 FIP in 18 1/3 innings pitched this season.

Clint Hurdle then went with closer Tony Watson in the top of the 9th inning. Watson allowed a one-out single to Eric Thames, but retired the other three batters he faced while firing a scoreless 9th inning.

Ex-Pirate Neftali Feliz pitched the bottom of the 9th for the Brewers. To start the inning, he got Andrew McCutchen to line out to third baseman Travis Shaw. This was followed by a one-out double by Gregory Polanco. This was his team-leading 9th double of the season.

Francisco Cervelli then grounded out to second base to move Polanco to third base with two outs. This brought up John Jaso who was intentionally walked. Jordy Mercer then struck out to end the inning and send the game to extra innings.

With Mercer’s strikeout, the Pirates fell to 2-for-9 on the night with runners in scoring position. Neither of these hits scored a run. This continued the Pirates problems with runners in scoring position this season.

Tony Watson remained in the game for the Pirates to pitch the top of the 10th inning. This was the first time this season that Clint Hurdle asked for multiple innings from his closer. Watson would reward his manager by throwing a 1-2-3 10th inning. Watson’s ERA this season is now a minuscule 0.73.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, the Pirates would win the game.

To start the bottom of the 10th inning, Gift Ngoepe singled for the Pirates. He was then able to advance to second base on a wild pitch by Carlos Torres, and he went to third base when Jose Osuna flew out to center field.

This brought up Josh Harrison with Ngoepe on third base and just one out. Harrison would rip a base hit into right field to give the Pirates a walk off 2-1 victory. This was Harrison’s 7th career walk off hit.

Next: Pirates Place Taillon On The DL

The third and final game of this series will be played tomorrow afternoon at PNC Park. Tyler Glasnow will start for the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the Milwaukee Brewers will counter with Zach Davies. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 PM.

With a win on Sunday, the Pirates will record their third series sweep of the 2017 season.

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