Pirates/MLB
Pittsburgh Pirates Pirates lose second straight
Starting pitcher Charlie Morton made his season debut Friday night and Morton who is regarded as having the best stuff of the entire staff, struck out five of his first six batters to pitch two scoreless innings to open up the game.
Morton showed great movement on his fastball and change up but everything turned for the worst in the 3rd inning for Morton and the Pirates.
With the bases loaded in the third, former Pittsburgh Pirate Adam LaRoche broke out of an 0-for-13 slump with a two-run single in the third, as the Diamondbacks jumped out to an 2-0 lead.
Morton got a bit rattled and hit Mark Reynolds with a pitch that reloaded the bases for Arizona.
Two batters later, Chris Young hit a grand slam off of a 2-1 pitch to deep center and break the game wide open as Arizona led 6-0 in the third inning.
Morton allowed eight runs and nine hits in 3 1/3 innings. He threw 50 strikes on 88 pitches and had 6 strikeouts and 1 walk.
The Diamondbacks would add two more runs in the 4th inning and both runs were charged to Morton.
For the second straight game the Pirates bats came up empty. The Pirates managed just 8 hits, scoring their only run on a Jeff Clement single to center that scored Lastings Milledge.
The Diamondbacks would add their 9th run in the bottom of the 7th, off of a Chris Young single to center. Reliever Evan Meek was charged with the earned run.
Pirates reliever D.J. Carrasco pitched a scoreless 5th and 6th innings, while Hayden Penn pitched a scoreless 8th inning for the Pirates.
Leadoff hitter Aki Iwamura went 2-for-4, and Garrett Jones went 2-for-3, the only Pirates with multi-hits in the game. Andrew McCutchen was 0-for-4 and was hitless for the second straight game.
Delwyn Young added a pinch hit single in the 7th inning and is batting .600 on the season.
The Diamondbacks improved to 3-1 on the season.
Minor League Report: Alvarez stars in Indians 14-12 win
Third baseman Pedro Alvarez, the Pirates No. 1 prospect blasted two home runs and drove in five as the Indianapolis Indians defeated the Columbus Clippers in a 14-12 on Friday, April 9 at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio.
Alvarez (2-for-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 5 RBI) has three home runs and seven RBI’s in his first two games at the AAA level.
Nine different Indianapolis batters recorded at least one hit, with the first six players in the batting order tallying multiple hits, four different individuals scoring two or more runs and four different Indians registering at least two RBI.
Jose Tabata (2-for-6, 2 2B, 1 R), Steve Pearce (2-for-5, 2 2B, 2 R), and Neil Walker (2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI) each had two hits.
The downside of the Indians game is that it wasn’t a strong season debut for top pitching prospect Brad Lincoln.
Brad Lincoln (3.1 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO) worked into the fourth inning and allowed five earned runs on eight hits.
