The Pirates wasted a strong outing by Charlie Morton and some good work from their bullpen on Tuesday night at PNC Park, as they lost to the San Francisco Giants 3-2 in 10 innings.
Morton had six strikeouts and allowed only one run in six innings, and the Pirates took a 2-1 lead into the seventh thanks to Garrett Jones’ solo homer in the second and an RBI single by Lyle Overbay in the sixth. Chris Resop then helped Morton by recording three straight outs after Morton allowed the first two runners to reach base in the seventh.
The suddenly-unreliable Evan Meek then allowed the first two runners to reach in the eighth, and Clint Hurdle quickly replaced him with Joe Beimel, who pitched to one batter. Jose Veras then came on and allowed a run to score via a sacrifice fly, but was otherwise brilliant, striking out the side in the ninth.
Otherwise, though, the Pirates’ pitching staff got no help. Pedro Alvarez actually tried to sacrifice bunt in the seventh – I know he’s struggling right now, but that’s not something a slugger should ever do. Ronny Cedeno actually stopped while running out what turned out to be a fair ball in the ninth, believing it was foul. And a series of poor defensive plays in the 10th (Matt Diaz getting too aggressive with a ball and allowing it to get by him, Joel Hanrahan and Lyle Overbay missing a pickoff attempt, and Neil Walker lollipopping a throw to first, allowing the absurdly fast Darren Ford to charge from third and score the winning run) kept the Pirates’ staff from picking up a win.