Pittsburgh Pirates Win Series Over Colorado Rockies

The Pittsburgh Pirates have now won four consecutive games

On Tuesday night the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Colorado Rockies by a score of 5-2. With the win, the Pirates improve to 30-35 on the season. Furthermore, they lock up a series victory over the team with the best record in the National League.

With their victory on Tuesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates now have their first four game winning streak of the season. Also, they are now just 3.5 games out of first place in the super mediocre National League Central.

Early on in Tuesday night’s game, there was not much offense. This lack of offense would become the theme of Tuesday night’s game.

In the bottom of the 2nd inning, the Pirates got a pair of runners on base, but Gerrit Cole grounded out to end the inning. Then in the top of the 3rd inning, Gregory Polanco made a fine running catch to rob Charlie Blackmon of a RBI double. Polanco also ended the inning in the process.

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In the bottom of the 4th inning, the Pittsburgh Pirates would finally break the scoreless tie. With 2 outs, Andrew McCutchen would crush his 10th home run of the season out to left field. This made it 1-0 Pirates.

Unfortunately, the lead would not last long.

With 2 outs in the top of the 5th inning, Gerrit Cole walked Trevor Story. This was the first walk issued by Cole. Then, catcher Tony Wolters hit a bloop single into left-center field.

On the play, left fielder Adam Frazier fielded the ball after lazily trotting toward it and made an abysmal throw toward the infield. Not only did it allow Story to score all the way from first, but Wolters was able to go to third base as well. Cole would then get his mound opponent Tyler Chatwood to groundout to end the inning.

Jordy Mercer would double to start the bottom of the 5th inning, and moved to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Cole. This brought up Adam Fraizer with a runner on third base and just 1 out, however, Frazier would continue his poor night as he struck out looking. Josh Harrison then struck out looking to end the inning.

With 1 out in the top of the 6th inning, DJ LeMahieu hit a ball back to Gerrit Cole. Cole failed to field the ball cleanly, and then picked it up and tried to fire to first even though LeMahieu was going to be safe easily. The throw would get past first baseman Josh Bell, allowing LeMahieu to go to second base.

Gerrit Cole then got Nolan Arenado to fly out to right field. On the play, LeMahieu would tag up and advance to third base. He then got Mark Reynolds to pop out behind the pitcher’s mound to end the inning.

The top of the 7th inning saw Gerrit Cole get into trouble. After retiring the first hitter of the inning, he issued back-to-back walks to Ian Desmond and Trevor Story. Then, with the runners on the move, Tony Wolters grounded out to first baseman Josh Bell for the second out of the inning.

Alexi Amarista then pinch-hit for Tyler Chatwood. Amarista came to the plate with runners on second and third with 2 outs. Cole would strikeout Amarista to end the inning and thwart the Rockie threat.

Jun 13, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole (45) delivers a pitch against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

Tuesday night saw Gerrit Cole get back on track. In 7 innings of work, Cole held the National League’s best offense to just 1 run on just 3 hits, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. He needed exactly 100 pitches to get through 7 innings of work.

This snapped Cole’s streak of 4 consecutive poor starts. The most encouraging sign was Cole did not allow a home run, and he entered the night allowing an averaging of 1.77 HR/9.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 7th inning, Jordy Mercer collected a single. This brought John Jaso to the plate. Jaso would hit his second pinch-hit home run of the season, giving the Pirates a 3-1 lead. This was Jaso’s 4th home run of the season.

It was Juan Nicasio time in the top of the 8th inning for the Pirates. The inning started with a 10 pitch battle between Nicasio and Charlie Blackmon, that Nicasio won with a strikeout. He then recorded another strikeout and got a fly out to cap off a 1-2-3 8th inning.

The Pittsburgh Pirates would extend their lead in the top of the 9th inning. With 2 outs, Josh Bell drew a walk. After this, Andrew McCutchen hit his second home run of the game and 11th of the season. Andrew McCutchen’s 13th career multi-home run game made it 5-1 Pirates.

Felipe Rivero pitched the 9th inning for the Pirates. After issuing a walk to start the inning, Rivero would retire the next 2 hitters. After allowing a RBI single to Trevor Story, he would get a groundout to end the game. Despite almost looking human on Tuesday night, Rivero still slammed the door on the Rockies to end the game.

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Tuesday night’s game marked the second consecutive night where the Pittsburgh Pirates shut down the best offense in the National League. Right now, the Pirates are playing some very good baseball. Especially offensively as the Bucs are averaging 6.2 runs per game during the month of June.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will be going for a series sweep on Wednesday night. Chad Kuhl is scheduled to start for the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the Rockies plan to start German Marquez. First pitch from PNC Park is scheduled for 7:05 PM.

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