Pirates deliver a fun night
mph fastball by Seth Smith for strike three in the first inning. But I had no idea it was going to be so terrific that Cole would get his first career complete game, needing just 93 pitches to do it. He hugged catcher Francisco Cervelli after second baseman Josh Harrison started a superb double play to end it and then took the game ball from first baseman David Freese. It’s a keeper.
“He was so pitch-efficient,” Clint Hurdle said. “That’s as efficient as I’ve seen him since he’s been here.”
The win also was important because Andrew McCutchen and Jung Ho Kang finally awoke after their long summer slumbers. McCutchen had three hits, including an RBI-double in the third inning and a three-run home run in the eighth inning. Kang knocked in three runs with a bases-loaded double in the seventh to put the game out of Seattle’s reach.
“I don’t think there’s anything in this game that helps boost confidence other than success,” Hurdle said. “Their success tonight was real. Better at-bats, cleaner at-bats. We need ’em. They’re an integral part of our offense. We need to get ’em in play. They want to be in play. Tonight, both of ’em were in play. You can see the difference they can make.”
Beyond all of that, the game was just plain fun.
It might have been the most entertaining 10-1 game I’ve seen.
Mariners starter James Paxton trumped Cole’s 98mph pitch to Smith by throwing a 99-mph fastball by McCutchen in the Pirates’ first. He consistently threw 97 or 98, making it seem unfair when he struck out Kang with an 82-mph curveball in the second. The Pirates finally caught up to Paxton in the third when they scored three runs, the big hit when McCutchen turned around a 98-mph fastball for his double. But Paxson was entertaining, if not as effective as Cole.
I love power pitching. Cole and Paxson gave it to me.
“Our guy located all night,” Jordy Mercer said of Cole.
“You don’t see that kind of power from a leftie very often,” Sean Rodriguez said of Paxson. “That’s Randy Johnson.”
I also love great defense. The Pirates played fabulous defense behind Cole.
Kang made a diving play at third base. You never know where Sean Rodriguez is going to play — he has started at six positions this season — but it doesn’t matter because he’s outstanding everywhere. He was in right field for this game and went a long way to his left to make a catch against the wall to take extra bases from Leonys Martin, then went even further to his right to make a diving, backhanded catch on a ball hit by Norichika Aoki. That second catch, alone, was worth the price of a ticket. Rodriguez is so good in the field that it was shocking when he failed to catch a line drive hit by Robinson Cano in the ninth inning and was given an error.
“It was kind of in the lights and I was squinting a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “I still should have had it. I get mad when I don’t catch them.”
Then, there was the comedic relief.
Aoki hit a groundball to Freese in the third inning. Freese juggled the ball and, after picking it up, flipped it behind his back to Cole covering. Cole snatched it out of the air with his right hand to complete the play. You should have seen Harrison’s smile as he marveled at it.
Harrison was more directly involved with a fun play in the third inning. He smoked a ball to left-center that Aoki couldn’t catch. It went all the way to the wall as Harrison chugged around the bases. Third-base coach Rick Sofield initially sent Harrison to try for an insidethe-park home run, then tried to stop him. Harrison stumbled halfway to home and nearly fell before hustling back and diving safely into third.
“I think my head was going faster than my legs,” Harrison said, grinning.
None of the Pirates was surprised that Harrison was able to scramble back to third.
“We don’t even say anything to him anymore,” Mercer said. “He’s the only guy who can do that.”
Harrison was OK with how the play ended. The inside-the-parker can wait.
“We really needed this win,” he said. “That was a fun game to play.”
A joy to watch, too.