Pittsburgh Pirates Defeat Arizona Diamondbacks To Earn Series Split

Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks by a score of 6-4 in extra innings to earn a series split.

A road trip that started very ugly for the Pittsburgh Pirates ended on a high note on Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon saw the Pirates record a 6-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in 10 innings to win the final 2 games of their 7 game road trip.

This was a great job of bouncing back by the Pirates who lost the first 5 games of their road trip. The Bucs are now 16-22 on the season.

The Pittsburgh Pirates scored first on Sunday afternoon. Adam Frazier singled to start the game, Josh Harrison was hit by a pitch, Andrew McCutchen walked, and the bases were loaded with no one out.

Then it would be good news and bad news for the Pirates. The good news would be that they would score a run, the bad news was that it came when Gregory Polanco hit into a double play. This made it 1-0 Pirates after half an inning of play.

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Their 1-0 lead would be short lived, though. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Paul Goldschmidt would hit a 2-run home run to make it 2-1 Diamondbacks after an inning of play.

When the top of the 3rd inning rolled around, the Pirates would regain the lead via a pair of long balls. Andrew McCutchen would hit a home run to lead off the inning tying the game. Then after a Gregory Polanco single, Josh Bell hit a mammoth 2-run home run to right field to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead.

This home run was Josh Bell’s team leading 7th home run of the season. He has now hit 4 as a right-handed hitter, and 3 from the left side. Josh Bell is quickly becoming an all-around threat at the plate that will make fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates very happy for a very long time.

Paul Goldschmidt would take Ivan Nova deep for a second time in the bottom of the 5th inning, cutting the Pirate lead to 4-3. Also in the bottom of the 5th inning, Gregory Polanco would exit the game with an apparent injury leading to John Jaso replacing him in right field. Hopefully, it is nothing major with Polanco.

Then in the bottom of the 6th, Nova was able to get out of a bases loaded jam.

With one out, A.J. Pollock ripped a ball to third base. However, Josh Harrison made a great pick on the ball, stepped on the bag at third, and fired across the infield to complete the double play. This ended the inning with the Pirates still leading 4-3.

On Sunday, Ivan Nova pitched 6 innings. He allowed 3 runs on 9 hits, a walk, and he struck out 4 batters. All 3 of the runs Nova allowed came on home runs by Paul Goldschmidt.

Ex-Diamondback Daniel Hudson would take over on the mound for the Pirates. He would record two outs, but also walk 3 batters. This led to him being lifted for Wade LeBlanc with 2 outs and the bases loaded.

LeBlanc would then proceed to walk the light-hitting Jeff Mathis to tie the game at 4. Because baseball is 100 percent unpredictable, LeBlanc would then bounce back by striking out Goldschmidt looking to end the inning.

Tony Watson took over for the Pirates in the bottom of the 9th. He allowed back-to-back singles to start the inning, albeit the second single was a bunt single that came about from Gift Ngoepe failing to cover first base.

Watson would clean things up quickly, though. Chris Herrmman popped up a bunt attempt that Watson caught for the first out of the inning. Nick Ahmed then hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Just as the Pirates struck first earlier in the game, they would also strike first in extra innings.

Tom Wilhelmsen would retire the first 2 batters he faced in the top of the 10th inning. However, Gift Ngoepe then walked. After this, Jose Osuna crushed a 2-run home run to left-center field to make it 6-4 Pirates.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, Tony Watson would remain in the game. With 1 out, Daniel Descalso singled and advanced to second on an Andrew McCutchen error. A.J. Pollock then singled to put runners on the corners with 1 out. However, Pollock would exit the game due to an injury.

At this point, the Diamondbacks were out of position players. This led to pitcher Zack Greinke pinch running and pitcher Patrick Corbin pinch hitting. Watson would strikeout Corbin looking for the second out of the inning.

Clint Hurdle then had Paul Goldschmidt intentionally walked. This loaded the bases with 2 outs for Jake Lamb. Watson would get Lamb to ground out to second base to end the inning.

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With the win, the Pittsburgh Pirates are now 16-22 on the season. As winners of 2 in a row, they finish off their 7 game road trip with a record on 2-5. This was a very good win for the Pirates, as they could have very easily let this game get away in the 8th, 9th, or 10th innings.

After a day off on Monday, the Pittsburgh Pirates return home on Tuesday night to start a 3 game series with the Washington Nationals. Game 1 of the series is scheduled for 7:05 PM and Chad Kuhl is scheduled to start for the Pirates.