Ricky Nolasco and Edwin Mujica combined on a five hit shutout as the Pirates failed to score for the second time in a row. Charlie Morton was victimized by a bunch of two out hits.
It was an ugly second inning. Morton got the first two batters but gave up consecutive singles to John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio. He walked Nolasco and then gave up a two run single to Chris Coghlan. Omar Infante’s single into left was misplayed by Jose Tabata, allowing another run to score. Hanley Ramirez singled in the fourth run of the inning.
Morton gave up another pair in the next inning. A single by Greg Dobbs, a walk to Mike Stanton and a wild pitch put runners on second and third with no one out. But Bonifacio and Coghlan came up with RBI knocks to push the score to 6-0.
The Pirates couldn’t do much against Nolasco. He struck out five Pirates in a row in the fourth and fifth inning. Pittsburgh advanced just one runner past second base through six. The Pirates almost broke through in the seventh but Pedro Alvarez was thrown out at home while trying to score on a double from Chris Snyder.
Morton went five and gave up six runs on ten hits and three walks. He struck out six. Nolasco struck out eight and gave up four hits and a walk in seven strong innings.
The Good
Chris Resop struckout three in two scoreless innings of relief.
The Bad
It goes without saying (or writing) – the offense.
The Rest
Morton is now 2-3 against Florida. Nolasco is 4-3 against the Bucs.
Matt Diaz had two hits and has multi-hit games in three of his last four starts. He came into the game with nine hits in 20 at bats against Nolasco in his career.
Bucs were shutout for the third time on the young season. The Pirates were also shutout three times in April 2010 and 15 times total.
Pirate hitters came into the game with the most strikeouts in the league and whiffed ten more times.
