And the curse continues. Forget about how the Pittsburgh Pirates play at Miller Park….how about their struggles at PNC Park against the San Diego Padres? The Bucs fell 8-2 to the Padres this afternoon on the north shore, capping another series loss to San Diego. Pittsburgh has now lost 14 straight series to the Padres at home, and has NEVER won a series against them at PNC Park.
The Pirates scored two in the first inning, but for the second time in consecutive days, they failed to win the game. Prior to yesterday’s 2-1 loss, Pittsburgh had won 19 straight games when scoring in the first inning.
Charlie Morton took the loss, falling to 5-11 on the season. After three perfect innings to start the game, he fell apart on the mound. He gave up five runs on five hits with one walk in five innings. Stolmy Pimentel and Jeanmar Gomez struggled as well, giving up one run and two runs in two innings of work respectively.
Pittsburgh took the lead in the first inning on a two run homerun by Gregory Polanco. The long ball also scored Starling Marte, who led off the game with a single. As for Polanco, he had a solid day at the plate, later adding a double, going 2-4 and raising his batting average to .268 on the season.
The Padres got on the board in the fourth inning with an RBI single by Yonder Alonso. They added four runs in the fifth inning, which sealed the deal considering the Bucs’ struggling offense. Seth Smith’s bases loaded triple scored three, and he later scored on a wild pitch, stretching the lead to 5-2. After Alonso sacrificed home a run in the seventh, Jeff Gyorko singled home two more in the ninth, making it a laugher at 8-2.
The Pirates did have some chances to come back throughout the afternoon, tallying seven hits total. But in a series trend this weekend, they were unable to cash in on run scoring opportunities.
Despite the loss, the Pirates still remain 2.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the N.L. Central. They did fall back to third place, though, as a result of the St. Louis Cardinals’ victory today.
The Pirates will wrap up their home stand with a two game series against the Detroit Tigers beginning tomorrow night at PNC Park. Justin Verlander will start for Detroit against Pittsburgh’s Jeff Locke. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.
Record vs. Padres: 3-3
Record vs. N.L. West: 20-12
Record at Home: 37-24
Overall Record: 62-55
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
