Pirates waste late opportunity again in loss to Rockies
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
DENVER (AP) — Jake McCarthy hit a leadoff inside-the-park home run off Paul Skenes and the Colorado Rockies survived another tense ninth inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-1 on Saturday night.
Skenes (6-7) took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against Colorado on May 12, and hasn’t won since that outing. He allowed two runs on just four hits with two walks and eight strikeouts in six innings but still saw his record drop below .500 despite a 2.86 ERA.
Tomoyuki Sugano (8-4) went six innings, and Jaden Hill picked up his second save.
Pittsburgh, as it did Friday night, had the tying run on third with no outs in the ninth and came empty again.
Brandon Lowe led off the inning with a double and went to third on Bryan Reynolds’ infield single against Brennan Bernardino, who then struck out Ryan O’Hearn. Hill came on and hit Nick Gonzalez to load the bases before striking out Tyler Callihan. Jake Mangum then hit a grounder to third baseman Kyle Karros, and the game ended when umpires determined Karros was interfered with by Billy Cook. Pirates manager Don Kelly came out to vehemently argue the call to no avail.
The game started with matching leadoff home runs. Spencer Horowitz blasted a 434-footer into the second deck in right field to start the night, his fifth career leadoff homer, and McCarthy answered with more flare.
McCarthy drove a liner to center field that got by the diving Mangum and rolled to the wall. Callihan had trouble picking it up, allowing McCarthy to race around the bases and beat the relay throw home.
It was the franchise’s second inside-the-park homer to lead off the first inning – the last by Eric Young Jr. on Aug. 8, 2012 — and the 20th inside-the-park home run in team history and first since Ian Desmond’s on June 14, 2019.
McCarthy’s hustle double in the third led to Colorado’s second run.