Marte’s RBI single in 13th lifts Pirates past Phillies
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Starling Marte’s single in the bottom of the 13th drove in Chris Stewart and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 Friday night.
Exactly six hours after the scheduled 7:05 p.m. first pitch, Marte delivered a two-out chopper up the middle off of Dustin McGowan (1-2). Backup catcher Stewart came around from second, beating Ben Revere’s throw from center to send the Phillies to their fourth consecutive defeat and move the Pirates into second place in the NL Central.
Jeff Locke, Arquimedes Caminero, Tony Watson, Mark Melancon, Jared Hughes, Rob Scahill and Antonio Bastardo (1-1) combined on Pittsburgh’s fifth shutout of the season.
Philadelphia’s first six pitchers combined for 12 scoreless innings, the first 5 2/3 coming from veteran Kevin Correia in his season debut.
The game’s start was delayed 86 minutes because of a passing rainstorm.
Josh Harrison had four hits to match a career high, including Pittsburgh’s lone extra-base hit — a two-out double in the fourth.
A pitcher’s duel seemed improbable with the Phillies turning to a starter signed to his third organization in three months earlier this week in Correia.
But Correia and Locke, Pittsburgh’s No. 5 starter, combined for 11 2/3 scoreless innings, albeit not without baserunners. Philadelphia left six men on base over the first three innings, and eight of the 17 runners Pittsburgh stranded in the game were put on base by Correia.
The Pirates loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth against Ken Giles, but Giles came back from down 3-0 to Jordy Mercer to strike him out swinging.
Giles drew the ire of Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg and pitching coach Bob McClure, though, in the dugout after the at bat. The coaching staff apparently was upset with Giles for a dismissive backhand flip he made toward Mercer as he walked off the mound after the strikeout.
The Phillies’ best chances to score came in the sixth — when Gregory Polanco jumped up against the right-field wall to catch Cody Asche’s fly ball with a runner on and two outs — and the 10th, when Josh Harrison made a fine play on a weakly-grounded ball down the third-base line with runners on first and third and two outs.
The Phillies have lost seven of eight and 17 of 22. Their lineup Friday did not include regulars Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Freddy Galvis and Carlos Ruiz.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: Pittsburgh hasn’t had a player put onto the disabled list since May 6.
STELLAR STARTERS
Pirates starting pitchers are still on quite the wave of success, though a rare streak came to an end Friday. Starters had accounted for each of the past 17 Pittsburgh victories dating to May 11 before reliever Bastardo got the latest win. That was the longest such Pirates streak since 1987. Still, Pittsburgh starters are 14-3 with a 2.30 ERA over the past 20 games.
UP NEXT
Pirates: RHP Gerrit Cole will try to take over the majors’ lead in wins with his 10th on Saturday. Cole, who has won each of his past four starts, won in Philadelphia on May 11.
Phillies: RHP Sean O’Sullivan lost against Pittsburgh on May 12 at Citizens Bank Park. C Francisco Cervelli, tops in the NL with a .356 average since May 1, had two doubles in that win for the Pirates.