Bucs: Eighth Inning Homer Costs Pirates a Sweep of Arizona
PITTSBURGH — For the second straight night the Pirates bullpen gave up costly runs to the Diamondbacks.
Only this time, Pittsburgh's bats couldn't battle back in the late innings and the Bucs lost, 2-0, Thursday night at PNC Park. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle chose to pull Jeff Karstens after seven innings of shutout baseball for Chris Resop, who gave up a two-run home run to Chris Young in the eighth.
Micah Owings reached base on an infield single as the second batter of the inning. Young then stepped to the plate and hammered a pitch over the left field wall for a 2-0 lead and all the run support Arizona (34-29) would need.
Pittsburgh rarely threatened offensively as Owings was strong out of the bullpen. Diamondbacks starter Josh Collmenter pitched five scoreless innings, followed by Joe Paterson and Owings to finish out the sixth. Owings stayed in for the seventh and eighth innings, allowing just one hit and striking out four.
The Pirates best scoring chance came in the seventh with Josh Harrison and Garrett Jones on first and second with one out. However, Owings struck out Jose Tabata and then forced Xavier Paul in to a ground out to second to end the inning.
The loss drops the Pirates (30-31) back under the .500 mark on the season.
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Chris Gates | Bucs Blog
Twitter.com/Chris_Gates
Chris.Gates@cbsradio.com
