Results tagged ‘ jonathan herrera ’
Bucs walks hurt in 6-5 loss to Rockies
The Pirates opportunity to split the series against the Colorado Rockies came to and end in the 7th inning after Rookie Mike Crotta walked three batters, including the go-ahead run, as the Rockies went on to win the game and take the series, 6-5 at PNC Park on Sunday.
Crotta, for the first time all spring and season, looked like a Rookie on the mound. Crotta made it through four appearances this season without allowing a run.
Crotta look over for starter James McDonald with one on (Dexter Fowler) and two out. He walked Jonathan Herrera, then allowed Jason Giambi to hit a single, scoring the game tying run.
Crotta’s inability to throw strikes continued as he walked Troy Tulowitzki to load the bases. The next batter, Seth Smith was walked as well, putting the Rockies on top, 6-5.
Crotta threw 21 pitches –just seven for strikes.
Crotta told Colin Dunlap of the Post-Gazette, “Just didn’t execute my pitches. My job is to come in and get outs. You can’t get outs when you walk people.”
“There are eight guys out there. If they put it in play, chances are they will hit it at somebody. When you walk somebody, there’s nothing anyone can do to help you.”
It wasn’t just Crotta who had trouble throwing strikes, Right-hander James McDonald made his second appearance of the season, and he had a rough first inning.
McDonald threw 38 pitches in the first. He walked two, and also hit Chris Ianetta in the inning. Nine men came to the plate, and four runs scored, including a three run homer by Jose Lopez.
Lopez told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “I asked everybody in the dugout, ‘How’s the fastball? ‘Is it moving? Not moving?’ Everybody said, ‘Straight.’ I saw two men on base, so I wanted to swing at the first-pitch fastball.”
McDonald told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “I had a talk with myself [after the inning] that I needed to really pick it up and keep the team in the game. I had to motivate myself to hold that game, keep it close.”
McDonald did just that. He threw just 65 pitches over the next 5.2 innings, allowing just three hits and kept the Rockies scoreless.
So what clicked for McDonald after a rough first inning? Advice from Catcher, Ryan Doumit.
McDonald told Colin Dunlap of the Post-Gazette, “Told him to pound that two-seam fastball, forget the four-seamer,” Doumit said, referring to a sinker over the standard fastball. “He has really good downward action on [the two-seam fastball] and it makes it tough to put it in the air.”
McDonald told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “It’s always a good step when your team is still in the game when you come out. I showed that I’m out there competing. I showed my team that I’m not going to give up. It was big for me to go back out there and hold those guys scoreless.”
The Pirates put one run on the board in the first inning and tied the game at 4 in the third. Jose Tabata was hit by a pitch and Neil Walker singled to start the inning. Andrew McCutchen hit a RBI single to left field, and both advanced to second and third base on the throwing error by Carlos Gonzalez. Lyle Overbay hit a double down the right field line to tie the game at 4.
McDonald helped out his own cause in the 4th, by hitting a single and scoring the go ahead run. J-Mac told Jenifer Langosh of MLB.com in the spring that he wanted to have 10 hits this year. He’s got one down, nine to go.
The game stayed 5-4, until the 7th inning when Crotta allowed the two runs to score. The Pirates were unable to come up with a hit in the final three innings, as the Rockies went on the beat the Bucs, 6-5 and take the series win.
The Pirates have issued 46 walks so far the season –the most in the majors, including seven on Sunday.
Manager Clint Hurdle told Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, “We’ve got to do better. Being concerned about it isn’t going to get the job done. Guys have got to throw strikes and get hitters out.”
The Bucs fall to 5-5 on the season.
Three run 8th costly for Bucs, lose 6-4 to Rockies
The Colorado Rockies broke open a tie game in the 8th inning after scoring three runs off of Jose Veras, as they went on to beat the Pirates, 6-4.
After a leadoff walk to Jonathan Herrera and a single to Carlos Gonzalez, Veras struck out the next two Rockies in a row. Jose Lopez was hit by a pitch to load to the bases and former Bucco Ty Wigginton came to the plate.
Wigginton took the first pitch down the left field line for a bases clearing double to give the Rockies a 6-3 lead.
Veras told Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune, “I tried to come in and set up my breaking ball, maybe (get) a broken-bat rollover. That was the pitch that cost me the game.”
Right-hander Charlie Morton made his second start of the season on Saturday. He allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits with five walks and one strikeouts over seven innings (92 pitches).
Morton told Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune, “If the plate was moved over a foot toward the right-hander’s batter’s box, I’d be in a lot better shape. I wasn’t spraying balls everywhere. I was missing down and in to righties and away to lefties.”
Morton got off to a shaky start in the first inning. He allowed a lead off walk to Dexter Fowler, who stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Ryan Doumit. Morton walked the next batter, Herrera to put runners on the corners with no outs.
Gonzalez hit into a 6-4-3 double play but Fowler scored to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead. Morton got Troy Tulowitzki to fly out to escape the inning.
Morton threw 17 pitches in the inning, just five for strikes.
Lyle Overbay hit a lead off double off of right-hander Greg Reynolds in the 2nd. Two batters later, Ryan Doumit hit a two-run homer to right center to give the Bucs a 2-1 lead. The homer marked Doumit’s 48th as a Bucco. He is now tied with Smoky Burgess and Manny Sanguillen for fourth place on the club’s all-time homer list.
The Rockies tied the game at 2 in the 3rd inning after Morton allowed walking Fowler (for a second time in as many innings) and a RBI single by Gonzalez.
Jose Lopez homered off Morton in the 6th to put the Rockies back on top, 3-2.
The Pirates tied the game back up at 3 after Matt Diaz hit a RBI single to score Ryan Doumit.
The Rockies blew the game open in the 8th after three runs scored off of Jose Veras.
Jose Tabata hit a solo-home run in the bottom of the 8th inning to cut the lead to, 6-4, and extend his hitting streak to nine games. Tabata also hit a home run during last night’s game.
Kevin Correia pitched the 9th inning for the Bucs. He needed just nine pitches to retire the side.
The Pirates threatened in the bottom of the inning after both Matt Diaz and Jason Jaramillo singled, but Steve Pearce hit into a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
Kristy Robinson
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