The Pittsburgh Pirates stepped into the middle game of a three-game set Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park, hoping to get a solid start from pitcher Francisco Liriano, who has not quite been himself lately. Tuesday's game was similar to Monday's in that the Diamondbacks would strike early and put the pressure on the Pirates. However, unlike Monday, the Pirates had a response for Arizona.
Liriano was about to have a quality start, but the Pirates trotted him back out in the eighth inning of the game, and he was pulled after allowing a few baserunners. Liriano finished the night by pitching seven innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts. To give Liriano the benefit of the doubt, he should not have gone back out for the start of the eighth inning after the rough start he endured.
Liriano gave up two first inning runs to the Diamondbacks on Tuesday, but the Pirates quickly tied it in the bottom of the first against Arizona starter Chase Anderson. The Diamondbacks quickly struck back in the second inning to take a 3-2 lead. But Tuesday was different than Monday because the Pirates had a response. The Pirates would get even in the bottom of the second before taking the lead in the third off of a Starling Marte solo homer, his 14th of the season.
Pedro Alvarez, who has quietly been carrying the Pirates offense lately, came through with a clutch base hit with the bases loaded and two outs to score Aramis Ramirez and Jung Ho Kang to put the Pirates up 6-3. Francisco Cervelli would add an RBI base hit in the fifth to make it 7-3. Jung Ho Kang would later add another insurance run for the Pirates, hitting his 10th homer of the season on a line drive to left field off of D-Backs reliever Josh Collmenter. The Pirates led 8-3 heading into the eighth inning.
However, the Diamondbacks are the ones that would have a response for the Pirates this time. Arizona plated two runs in the eighth inning and then found a way to tie it in the top of the ninth against Pirates closer Mark Melancon. Paul Goldschmidt drove in two runs on a fielding error by Sean Rodriguez of the Pirates. Rodriguez was in the game at first base as a defensive replacement for Pedro Alvarez. Albeit a sharply hit ball, Rodriguez should have made the play but he could not and the Diamondbacks tied it at eight.
It was not until about quarter after twelve Wednesday morning that this game would end. Pirates shortstop Pedro Florimon, the most unlikely hero possible, drove in Francisco Cervelli on a triple to walk the game off and give the Pirates a triumphant 9-8 victory. Florimon is an unlikely hero because he entered the at-bat just 1-for-18 this season with the Pirates. But thanks to his walk-off triple, that is now 2-for-19, good for a batting average of just over .100.
ANALYSIS: The Pirates offense came alive in this contest, once again having the way paved thanks to Pedro Alvarez who has been hot in the past couple weeks of baseball. Alvarez went 2-for-4 on Tuesday night with two RBI's and his batting average is now sitting at .255. Alvarez is hitting .326 in his last 15 games, with four homers and 10 runs batted in during that span. Starter Francisco Liriano was not the best on Tuesday, but his offense was able to pick him up and help him out by scoring quite a few runs compared to Monday night's performance.
The one big problem, however, is that the Pirates are still playing bad fundamental baseball and it has cost them before. Luckily for them, the game still played out in their favor but two fielding errors, one by Jung Ho Kang and the other by Sean Rodriguez that both came in the ninth inning, helped the Diamondbacks stay alive and have a chance to tie the game and they were able to do just that. If the Pirates want to catch St. Louis for the division, they must play better fundamental baseball.
BIG PICTURE: The big picture takeaway from this game is the fact that the Pirates received some help on Tuesday night. The San Francisco Giants were able to shut out the St. Louis Cardinals on the road on Tuesday night 2-0 so the Pirates are back to five games behind St. Louis in the National League Central division. Furthermore, the Pirates are four games out in the loss column to St. Louis. Based on history, this is the Cardinals' division to lose at this point. But with that being said, there is still about six weeks of baseball left and the Pirates may be able to make one final push and put some pressure on the Cardinals by cutting the lead down to just a few games. If that happens, things can get very interesting from there but that remains to be seen.