The opening game of the Pittsburgh Pirates three game homestand against the Los Angeles Dodgers had it all.
A catcher’s interference on Austin Hedges in the first inning set things up for a two-out, two-run double by Dodgers rookie Miguel Vargas. In the bottom half, Tucupita Marcano followed a single with a stolen base, and then scored on a Carlos Santana single to make it 2-1 after one inning.
In the second inning, the offense showed a spark on the heels of the Bryan Reynolds extension news.
With one out, Ji-Hwan Bae beat out a grounder to second base for a single and then rather quickly stole second base. After Hedges was hit by a pitch, Ke’Bryan Hayes laced a two-run double to left field for a 3-2 lead.
The Pirates poured it on in the fourth when in similar fashion, Bae singled with one out and then stole second. This time Hedges singled in Bae to make it 4-2. After a Hayes single and another out, Andrew McCutchen stepped to the plate and crushed a sinker into the right field stands for a three-run homerun and 7-2 lead.
Johan Oviedo was having to battle most of the game against a tough Dodgers offense. He seemed to settle into a groove after the two runs in the first, before giving up a run in the fifth.
Things got shaky in the sixth though, but at the same time it still felt that the Pirates were meant to win this game. Oviedo would leave the game in the sixth with one out, the bases loaded, and one run having already scored to make it 7-4. Robert Stephenson entered the game to try and shut the door, giving up a sacrifice fly to the first hitter he faced to make it 7-5. Mookie Betts stepped to the plate with two on and two outs, and he crushed a 3-2 slider 402 feet. Luckily for the Bucs, Jack Suwinski tracked back to the wall and made a leaping grab to rob Betts of a three-run home run, and keep it a 7-5 game. That closed Oviedo’s night at 5.1 IP, five runs against with only four earned, two walks and four strike outs.
Probably one of the more promising moments of the evening, was Rule 5 selection Jose Hernandez — picked from the Dodgers of all teams — entering in the seventh and not even breaking a sweat. He sat down all three batters he faced on only 17 pitches, striking out two of them. He went down 3-1 to the Dodgers power hitting rookie CF James Outman, before blowing two fastballs right past him to end the inning.
Colin Holderman entered in the eighth, and that’s when the bad began. With one out and two runners on base, Holderman threw a 2-0 sinker that sub-.200 hitting Chris Taylor got ahold of, and the two-run lead turned into a one-run deficit.
To the bottom of the eighth, it appeared everything was setting up for a storybook ending to the evening. After a Marcano hit-by-pitch, the bases were juiced with two outs for McCutchen. He worked a 3-1 count, but then got under a high sinker that he popped up behind home plate to end the inning.
The defense worked some magic to keep it a one-run game in the ninth, with Hayes throwing a runner out at home with one out, and then Santana snagging a hard grounder to end the inning.
It wasn’t in the cards though, with the Pirates hitters going down 1-2-3 in the ninth. They lost game one of the series 8-7, snapping their seven game win streak. They lost, and it didn’t feel good. But at the same time, it was a really good baseball game that kept you on your seat and thinking you could watch this team on a nightly basis.
