PITTSBURGH — In a game where the Pirates faced arguably the best starting pitcher in the National League in right-hander Sandy Alcantara, their offense was pesky, persistent and productive, Pittsburgh tying the game in the ninth to force extra innings and threatening again in the 10th.
Unfortunately for a club that’s not exactly built to win a bunch of back-and-forth games, the Pirates came up a hair short, falling 6-5 in 10 innings to the Marlins at PNC Park on Sunday afternoon.
Trailing by two in the 10th, Ben Gamel drew a two-out walk, and Cal Mitchell smacked a slider into right field to score the extra runner, Kevin Newman. Greg Allen battled against Marlins reliever Jeff Brigham but ultimately struck out swinging on a 96 mph fastball, stranding two.
Miami grabbed the lead for good with a pair of runs off David Bednar in the ninth thanks to singles from pinch-hitter Nick Fortes and shortstop Miguel Rojas, the opposite outcome from when Bednar saved Saturday’s 1-0 victory.
Trailing by a pair of runs and looking like they might come up a hair short in this game, the Pirates forced extra innings in the most unlikely of ways — with a key hit by Yoshi Tsutsugo, who entered the game hitting just .175 this season and .171 in 11 contests since returning from a back injury.
The rally started with a single from Mitchell before Allen reached on an error by Marlins first baseman Jesus Aguilar. Oneil Cruz, who homered earlier against Sandy Alcantara, had a chance for another shining moment but struck out on a slider. To the plate stepped Tsutsugo, who actually had the big hit in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Miami.
Tsutsugo went down and got a two-strike slider and shot it into right-center field, scoring Mitchell and Allen, the latter with a gorgeous slide at home plate to come out on the right end of a bang-bang play.
Until that point, it looked like the run the Pirates picked up in the sixth inning might be all they would get. With runners on second and third, Gamel drove a ball deep to center for a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-2 at the time, but Mitchell went down swinging and Allen bounced out to first.
Mitch Keller started for the Pirates and actually held his own against Sandy Alcantara, opening the game with four scoreless innings and striking out the side in the fourth. But Miami used a home run from right fielder Bryan De La Cruz and a two-run single from first baseman Jesus Aguilar to push across three runs and give its pitching staff enough room to breathe.
After Cruz gave the Pirates a 1-0 lead with his solo home run in the third inning, De La Cruz tied the game with a solo shot of his own in the top of the fifth, barreling up a first-pitch slider that Keller left up in the zone.
It was one of two times Keller missed with a breaking ball up, though overall it was a fairly productive afternoon for the 26-year-old right-hander, continuing his recent string of success since adopting sinker.
By allowing three earned runs over six innings — walking none and striking out seven — Keller dropped his July ERA to 2.88. That mark is at 3.51 in 10 starts since May 31, which is when Keller incorporated a sinker into his pitch mix.
The Marlins jumped in front, 3-1, with a pair of runs in the sixth, the rally starting when Keller hit his former battery mate, Jacob Stallings with a 3-1 pitch, and second baseman Joey Wendle reached on an infield single.
Rojas moved the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Aguilar gave the Marlins a 3-1 lead with his single into left field. Similar to De La Cruz, this also came early on in the count, with Aguilar turning on an inside fastball that was a little up.
Speaking of turning on things, the Pirates knew they wouldn’t get much against Alcantara, but Cruz gave them an early 1-0 lead with his fifth homer of the season and his first since July 10 at Milwaukee.
It also came on a fastball that Alcantara threw at 99.4 mph, tied for the second-hardest pitch on which a Pirate has homered in the Statcast era (2015-present).
Jung Ho Kang hit a 99.4 mph heater of Alex Reyes of the Cardinals on Sept. 7, 2016, while Jordan Luplow turned around a pitch that registered 100.3 mph from Miami’s Tyron Guerrero on Sept. 7, 2018.
After falling into a 0-2 hole, Cruz laid off a changeup low, took a borderline fastball and fouled off another changeup before connecting on elevated heat from Alcantara, a pitch Cruz drove 411 feet at 108.7 mph for what was just the seventh homer Alcantara has allowed this season.
What happened Sunday was actually a fascinating look into how dominant Alcantara has been lately. He lasted “just” six innings against the Pirates and gave up two earned runs on two hits with 10 strikeouts. He also walked three, threw a wild pitch and hit a batter.
Dominant? Yes. In line with Alcantara has been doing lately? Not quite. See, Sunday marked the first time in 14 starts that Alcantara didn’t pitch at least seven innings, a run that dates all the way back until May 11.
His ERA entering the game (1.76) was the best among NL pitchers, ditto for his WHIP (0.90). Alcantara’s 13 straight starts with at least seven innings pitched marked the longest stretch by a single pitcher in a season since 2014. He’s gone seven-plus in 14 of 19, eight or more eight times — more than twice anyone else.
It was a one-run game until the ninth, when Duane Underwood Jr. entered and gave up a double to center fielder JJ Bleday and De La Cruz picked up an RBI with his single into left field.
