Errant throw leads to a lost night
MIAMI — A mistake and bad breaks undid the Pirates (31-39) in a 4-3 loss Saturday against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park.
Pitcher Dario Agrazal’s bigleague debut with the Pirates went smoothly through three innings.
Garrett Cooper hit a one-out single off Agrazal in the first inning. Then Brian Anderson hit a ground ball to Colin Moran at third base. Moran, Adam Frazier at second base, and Josh Bell at first successfully turned the double play.
Harold Ramirez hit a single with one out and stole second base in the second inning. Agrazal got JT Riddle to fly out and finished the inning with a Jorge Alfaro ground out.
The third inning was his best work. Marlins hitters went down 1-2-3.
Then came the fourth inning, when Agrazal gave up three runs.
“I thought Agrazal pitched well,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “The first three were clean. The double-play helped. The error extended the [fourth] inning. However, they synced him up a little bit. They had four hard-hit balls off him for singles in that inning. I thought he got us to a manageable situation in the game. He did well, very well. I’m proud of him.”
Cooper hit a single and Agrazal hit Brian Anderson to start the fourth inning. Castro made the first out with a lazy fly ball to Reynolds in right field. Ramirez hit a single that drove in Cooper.
Agrazal and the Pirates should
have been out of the inning with a 3-1 lead when Riddle hit a grounder to Frazier. The ball was tailor-made for a double play. But Frazier’s throw toward second wound up in left field, allowing Anderson to score the second run of the inning.
Frazier fielded the ball properly and made a sound turn to throw the ball. It appeared that he was trying to throw the ball around Ramirez who was running to second. It didn’t work.
Alfaro drove in the third run with single to score Ramirez.
Agrazal ended his night by striking out Marlins starter Pablo Lopez.
One could argue that Agrazal should have pitched at least one more inning since he had thrown 59 pitches. Hurdle didn’t agree with that line of thinking.
“Four hard-hit balls from right-hand hitters and the right-handed hitters were coming up again,” Hurdle said. “It was the third time through the lineup. I thought he got us in a good place to manage the game with the bullpen from there.”
Agrazal showed a lot of promise in his first bigleague game. He threw 42 strikes and posted three strikeouts without giving up a walk.
“It felt like a dream come true,” Agrazal said through interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “I saw the situation in the game and I had to keep telling myself that it is just another game. I had to focus on it being just another game and being ready to compete.”
Agrazal beamed when discussing his enjoyment of the experience.
“Once I got on that mound I looked around and began to feel everything I should feel,” Agrazal said. “I accomplished one of my biggest dreams. I started looking around and like any ballplayer in this situation would think about how mega this is, how big this is. Then I had to calm down. I had to relax and remind myself that I’m here to help this team.”
Kevin Newman extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI single in the third inning off Lopez. Newman has 12 hits in his past 29 at-bats.
Bell and Corey Dickerson drove in runs in the fourth inning. Bell hit a single to score Starling Marte, and Dickerson drove in Moran with a double. Bell is leading baseball with 64 RBIs.
The Pirates offense came into the game averaging 5.6 runs per game in their past 22.
Geoff Hartlieb gave up the Marlins’ fourth run of the game in the fifth inning. Hartlieb pitched two innings. Francisco Liriano pitched two scoreless innings.
The Pirates had several chances, but couldn’t capitalize. In the ninth inning, Dickerson hit a one-out single and Melky Cabrera was up as a pinch-hitter. The Pirates lead the league in pinch-hitting batting average.
Cabrera couldn’t come through Saturday, hitting into a double play to end the game.
The Pirates will look to win the series with Chris Archer (3-6, 5.73 ERA) taking on Sandy Alcantara (36, 3.67 ERA).