Kuhl injured in start; Pirates fall to Marlins
the wall in right-center. He pulled a down-and-in breaking ball past Bell for an RBI single in the fourth.
With nobody out in the bottom of the fifth, Marlins leadoff hitter Dee Gordon bounced a ball back up the middle. It struck the inside of Kuhl’s right knee. Kuhl fell to the ground.
“Pretty intense pain,” Kuhl said.
Head athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk examined Kuhl, who eventually smiled at Tomczyk, stood up and walked around the mound. Kuhl threw three warm-up pitches.
“Not great,” he said afterward of those attempts.
Tomczyk and manager Clint Hurdle deemed him unable to continue.
“I didn’t see what I needed to see for him to be able to compete like he needed to compete,” Hurdle said. “He’s going to want to stay in the game on one leg.”
Kuhl walked off under his own power and Trevor Williams replaced him. Kuhl iced the knee and wore a compression wrap after the game. He said he hoped to pitch Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers. If he can’t, Williams might, or Drew Hutchison, who started Sunday for Class AAA Indianapolis.
Williams walked Giancarlo Stanton and Ozuna to load the bases for Bour. Bour fell behind 1-2. Williams threw a slider down and in — just as Kuhl had in his previous at-bat. Bour lined a single to right field that drove in two runs and put the Marlins ahead, 4-3.
“We actually had reports of him handling soft stuff in the strike zone,” Hurdle said. “Unfortunately we didn’t execute pitches where we needed to.”
Bour struck again in the Marlins’ six-run seventh. Chris Stewart wanted Daniel Hudson’s first-pitch fastball outside. Hudson missed inside, where Bour had already done damage. Bour drove it into the second deck in right field. Hudson retired only one batter and allowed five runs.