Pirates – Braves Wrapup: Morton clears another hurdle in 2-0 loss to Braves

W: J. Jurrjens (6-1)

L: C. Morton (5-2)

S: C. Kimbrel (13)

— The Pirates (22-25) dropped their second game in a row, falling to the Atlanta Braves 2-0 on Tuesday night in the first of a two game set.

The Pirates fell to 22-25 on the season and 9-13 at home. The Pirates 9 home wins are the second fewest in the National League.

— Shutout for the second straight game, the Pirates have gone 19 consecutive innings without scoring a run. The Pirates rank 24th in the majors in runs and are 3-20 in games that they have scored 3 runs or fewer.

— Jair Jurrjens (6-1) silenced the Pirates at the plate, limiting the Bucs to 6 hits (all singles), while striking out four and walking one in 7 2/3 innings to earn his 6th win of the season.

Jurrjens had excellent command throwing 71 strikes of his 97 pitches. The Pirates were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and never advanced a runner past second base.

— Pirates starter Charlie Morton (5-2, 2.61 ERA) pitched extremely well in a game where he clearly didn’t have his best stuff. Morton allowed seven hits while striking out four and walking three in seven-plus innings. Morton threw 62 strikes on 94 pitches.

Morton got 13 ground ball outs and over 75 percent of his outs have been on ground balls.

Manager Clint Hurdle said Morton’s start tonight was a good experience for him because of how he performed against a lefty lineup.

Morton came into the game with a 3.85 ERA against lefties.

In 7 of his 9 starts, he has allowed 2 runs or less.

— Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker were a combined 0-for-8 in the game. McCutchen came into the game batting .387 in his previous 8 games.

— Chris Snyder and Jose Tabata each had two hits in the game. Snyder and Morton continue to work well together behind the plate.

— Evan Meek saw his first action since coming off the DL. He retired all three batters he faced with 3 strikeouts.