Jared Jones delivers quality start, but Orioles beat up Pirates bullpen in home opener
The Pittsburgh Pirates got a ceremonial first pitch from a legendary manager who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, a quality start from a rookie right-hander and a pair of home runs in the home opener.
What they didn’t get was a win.
The Baltimore Orioles played the spoiler, beating up the bullpen for three runs on the way to a 5-2 victory Friday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 38,400 at PNC Park.
After Hall of Fame electee Jim Leyland threw the first pitch to Pirates manager Derek Shelton, Jared Jones (1-1) delivered his first quality start for the Pirates. The 22-year-old rookie struck out seven while surrendering two solo home runs out of six hits without a walk.
Orioles right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (2-0) had one of his own with an almost identical pitching line. Rodriguez gave up six hits, including two solo homers, and two walks while striking out seven in 6 1/3 innings.
With a call for fans to create a blackout by dressing in black clothes, the Pirates faithful instead endured a brief whiteout of snow flurries as the three rivers rose and temperatures dropped.
Jones provided some heat. His first pitch to Gunnar Henderson was a 97.7 mph four-seam fastball, with incremental increases to 97.9 and 98.9 in a three-pitch strikeout. Jones got Adley Rutschman swinging on a fastball that touched 99.5 before Anthony Santander lined out to center.
Jones mixed his slider in the second, but the Orioles caught on, as Ryan O’Hearn smacked an 0-1 fastball 389 feet to center for a home run and 1-0 lead. With two outs, Jones hit Jordan Westburg with a pitch, then gave up a single to Colton Cowser to put runners on the corners but got Ramon Urias to ground into a forceout.
The Orioles (5-2) tagged Jones for another solo shot in the third, as Henderson hit an 0-1 changeup 407 feet to straightaway center for a 2-0 lead.
The Pirates (6-2), meantime, stranded five runners through the first three innings. Andrew McCutchen, sitting one home run shy of his 300th, flied out to right with two on in the first inning and popped foul to third base with runners on the corners to end the third inning.
O’Hearn led off the fourth with a triple on a fly ball that dropped after an apparent miscommunication between center fielder Michael A. Taylor and right fielder Bryan Reynolds.
Cedric Mullins then was ruled safe on a grounder to first that Rowdy Tellez mishandled before flipping to second baseman Jared Triolo but was overturned upon review. Jones then got Cowser swinging on a 98.1 mph fastball for his fifth strikeout.
Oneil Cruz cut the Pirates’ deficit in half with one swing when Rodriguez left a changeup over the middle, sending it 377 feet to the right-field seats for his second homer to make it 2-1 in the fifth.
With Jones at 80 pitches and facing the Orioles lineup three times through six innings, the Pirates turned to lefty Ryan Borucki in the seventh. He struck out pinch hitter Austin Hays but gave up successive singles to Urias, Henderson and Rutschman, who hit a liner to left to drive in Urias for a 3-1 Orioles lead.
Hunter Stratton replaced Borucki, only for Santander to hit a sharp grounder down the third-base line for an RBI double to score Henderson and make it 4-1.
Triolo led off the bottom of the seventh by sending Rodriguez’s first-pitch fastball 411 feet into the visiting bullpen for his first home run of the season in his first home opener.
But Mullins started the eighth by driving Stratton’s 2-0 cutter 366 feet and off the right-field foul pole for a home run and 5-2 Orioles lead.
Baltimore struck out 10 of the final 14 Pirates hitters, as Orioles closer Craig Kimbrel retired the side in the ninth to earn the save.
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