Bucs An Out Away, But Marlin Mashes Carry Fish To 5-4, 10-Inning Win

Mitch Keller started off strong with a pair of whiffs. And holy moly, the leadoff homers – Fraze swatted Sandy Alcantara’s fourth pitch over the CF wall. In the second, Garrett Cooper lined one up the middle with an out; it hit Mitch in the wrist. He managed to hang on to the ball, but left the game without even trying to throw, sheesh, it continues even in September. Clay Holmes took over, gave up a walk, of course (he averages 6.5/nine IP), and a double, then collected the third out. The Pirates went down quietly. A single and two walks loaded the bases with two gone in the third; a grounder to Redbeard should have ended it, but he threw the ball askew, allowing two Fish upstream. J-Bell got his feet tangled up trying to corral the off-line toss and couldn’t tag the runner, so both ends of the play contributed. It was 1-2-3 for the Bucs again. The fourth began with a walk *sigh* and two outs later, Geoff Hartlieb answered the bell for the final out as Holmes was already at 55 tosses. It was nada for the Buccos. Miami got a run in the fifth with all two-out action – walk, balk, double, wild pitch, and so far all three Marlin runs were scored by guys who walked.

With two away in the Pirates half, a walk and knock was had by Stalls and Erik Gonzalez. Melky drew another free pass pinch hitting, and Fraze tied the score with a rap before being caught taking a too wide turn at first. Michael Feliz fanned the side in the sixth and the Pirates made nary a peep. Ric Rod did nearly as well in the seventh with a pair of K and a squib in front of the plate while Alcantara continued his Cy Young performance. Frankie Liriano took the eighth. The Pittsburgh Kid legged out a single, then was erased on a DP. Isan Diaz, hitting .153, walked and then a batter was bopped, but a liner to Starling kept the free runners at bay. Jason Martin pinch hit and drew a 3-2 walk and was balked up; Tuck grabbed a bat and walked, too. That brought in Jarlin Garcia. Fraze has two hits and three RBI, so Clint had him bunt the guys up. B-Rey was caught looking (and he could have been rung up a pitch sooner), then Starling was given an intentional pass to turn J-Bell around to the right side. A wild pitch brought home a run, with Martin banging up his shoulder in a tangle at home, and Josh was intentionally walked. Redbeard bounced out.

Felipe took the ball for the ninth, and with two outs gave up a homer to Miguel Rojas, who drilled a 100 MPH heater over the CF wall. Tyler Kinney walked Pablo with two gone, and then lost Tuck. Lefty Adam Conley came on to face Fraze. He beat out an infield knock, but for no purpose; Reyes tried to score from second on a ball to short, waved on his suicide mission by Joey Cora, and so it’s on to bonus baseball. Parker Markel gave up a homer to Garrett Cooper, who clocked it over The Notch, and Jose Urena tucked the Bucs away. Goodnight.

If this is how September is going to play out, God bless us every one. It’s gonna make for a long month if the walks and little league base running continue.

Notes:

• Fraze had three hits; the Pirates had four.
• Mitch Keller has a wrist contusion, per the Pirates. He’s day-to-day.
• The Pirates are the third team in MLB history to hit a leadoff homer in three or more straight games, along with the Orioles in April, 1996 (four in-a-row by Brady Anderson) & the Braves in August, 2018 (three consecutive by Ronald Acuna Jr.) per Stats by STATS.
• Felipe has given up 22 homers in his career; Rojas is the first batter to have two against him.
• Marlins 1B and ex-Bucco Neil Walker was presented the 2019 American Legion Baseball Graduate of the Year Award in a pregame ceremony.
• There were 9,169 announced at the park tonight.