Pirates earn sweep with rally at Miami
The Pittsburgh Pirates, who scored two runs in the top of the 10th inning without hitting the ball out of the infield, defeated the host Miami Marlins 9-7 on Sunday afternoon.
Pittsburgh’s Rowdy Tellez slugged a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh inning. But the Marlins tied in the bottom of the ninth on Nick Gordon’s pinch-hit homer.
Pittsburgh swept the season-opening four-game series, scoring 31 runs, and Hunter Stratton pitched a scoreless 10th inning to earn the save. In fact, the Pirates bullpen allowed just one run in six innings.
Miami blew a 5-0 lead and thus start the season 0-4 for the first time since 2001.
The Marlins got a Jazz Chisholm Jr. grand slam in the first; and Avisail Garcia’s solo homer in the fourth. Miami was the last team in the majors to hit a homer this season.
Chisholm hit Miami’s only two grand slams last year. For Garcia, it was his first homer since April 26 of last year.
Neither starter earned a decision, although Miami’s Trevor Rogers left with a two-run lead. He allowed four runs in five innings.
Pittsburgh’s Bailey Falter allowed six runs in four innings.
Miami jumped on Falter for five runs in the first. Jake Burger opened the scoring with a broken-bat RBI single.
Chisholm, batting sixth, jumped on a high, 2-0 fastball, pulling the pitch over the wall in right.
The Pirates cut their deficit to 5-3 in the second. The key hits were Alika Williams’ looping two-run triple and Bryan Reynolds’ swinging-bunt RBI single. On the triple, Marlins left fielder Bryan De La Cruz made a diving attempt.
Pittsburgh made it 5-4 in the fourth. Connor Joe started the rally with an infield single that might’ve been an out had Burger kept his foot on the bag at first. After a Reynolds walk, Ke’Bryan Hayes lined an RBI single.
Garcia homered to lead off the bottom of the sixth. After slugging a career-high 29 homers for Milwaukee in 2021, Garcia hit just 11 dingers for Miami the past two years.
