Sweep is a hit
Top off series by battering Detroit again for 13 more hits
DETROIT — A tamed Detroit Tigers offense finally roared to life late Thursday, but the answer by the Pirates was even louder.
After J.D. Martinez’s three-run, eighth-inning home run drew the Tigers within a run, all but nullifying Francisco Liriano’s seven scoreless innings, the Pirates tacked on four insurance runs in the ninth against Tigers reliever Bruce Rondon to wrap up an 8-4 win and series sweep at Comerica Park.
“We played good baseball,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We played tough.”
The Pirates collected 13 hits, bringing their series total to 49 hits and 22 runs in 32 innings. It marked the first time since 2006 they had 49 hits in a series, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Since May 9, the Pirates (45-33) own the best record in baseball at 32-17. They completed their league-leading ninth sweep of the season and pulled within 6 games in the NL Central Division of the St. Louis Cardinals, who lost Thursday night to San Diego. At this point a year ago, the Pirates were 39-39.
“When we’re pitching, playing defense and hitting, we’re as good as anybody in baseball,” Neil Walker said. “You wish you could just bottle that up and do it every game throughout the year, but that’s just not the way baseball is.”
Walker had four hits for the second consecutive game, raising his season average to .278, and finished the series 10 for 17 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles and 7 RBIs.
“He’s up there now looking for pitches he wants to hit,” Hurdle said. “He’s getting them, and he’s not missing them.”
The Tigers, Hurdle warned before the game, are a “very good hitting lineup against left-handed pitching.”
Indeed they had been, bringing into the game a .285 team batting average against left-handers. Plus, Liriano owned a 1-9 record in his previous 14 starts against them.
“Just put it behind me,” Liriano said of his history with the Tigers. “Whatever happened, happened in the past. I’ve got to move forward.”
Liriano held the all-righthanded Tigers offense at bay, allowing five hits and three walks, and improved to 5-6. Lirianao, who signed a three-year, $39 million deal in the offseason, has given up one or fewer runs in half of his 16 starts.
“That’s just a big-league outing from Frankie,” Hurdle said.
Catcher Francisco Cervelli said everything Liriano threw — his fastball, slider and changeup — was effective. He stayed aggressive, and kept his pitch count down.
Tigers left-hander Kyle Ryan (1-2) didn’t allow a hit until the third, when Josh Harrison dropped down a bunt single, but he ballooned his pitch count early and didn’t last long. He was lifted after walking the first two batters in the fifth, his fourth and fifth free passes of the game. Ryan allowed four hits and two runs, throwing 94 pitches.
Cervelli put the Pirates ahead in the fourth by planting Ryan’s 3-1 fastball in the Tigers bullpen beyond the left-field wall for his fourth home run of the season. The Pirates added single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh, but the lead shrank in a hurry.
Martinez, who sent the series opener into extra innings with a two-run home run, again answered the bell in the eighth. With two outs, Martinez sent lefthander Antonio Bastardo’s 2-2 changeup over the tall wall in right-center field for a three-run home run, his 21st of the season.
The Pirates punched back, breaking things open against Rondon, a hardthrowing right-hander. He added another page to a dossier of hit-by-pitch complaints this series when he drilled Cervelli in the arm with a 98 mph fastball to load the bases.
Walker stepped to the plate next and retaliated with a two-run double to center.
“When you score runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings you’re going to have a lot of success,” Walker said of the four-run ninth. “Even just to add on one run there was big, but to do what we did there was really big.”