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Gerrit Cole allowed four runs and the Pirates' offense couldn't sustain a rally as the Bucs lost Monday, 4-1.
The Diamondbacks got to Cole early. In the first, A.J. Pollock hit a one-out triple to right. Cole did strike out the ultra-dangerous Paul Goldschmidt and got to two strikes against David Peralta. Aramis Ramirez and Starling Marte failed to get to a 2-and-2 foul pop-up behind third base, though, and Peralta took advantage, doubling to right to bring home a run. Then Welington Castillo singled to center to bring home a second run.
In the second, Chris Owings led off with a double and came home on a single by pitcher Jeremy Hellickson. Then, in the fourth, Jake Lamb hit a solo home run just over the wall in center.
Cole didn't pitch too badly throughout all of this -- he struck out five batters and walked one over 5.2 innings, and of the pitches he threw on run-scoring plays, the only one that seemed bad to me was the fastball he threw on the Lamb homer. And the Hellickson hit was just a bloop.
Meanwhile, the Pirates couldn't do much against Hellickson and his arsenal of curveballs and changeups. They did get a run in the fifth when Pedro Alvarez hit a 73-MPH curve to deep right. It was a fly ball that probably would have died in front of the track if a batter with less ridiculous raw power had hit it, but for Alvarez it went as a solo homer.
The Bucs did threaten in the sixth, seventh and eighth, to no avail. In the sixth, Marte reached on an error and Andrew McCutchen walked, but Ramirez struck out and Jung-Ho Kang grounded out to end the threat. In the seventh, the Pirates loaded the bases with one out, but Addison Reed whiffed Gregory Polanco and got Marte to fly out. In the eighth, Michael Morse and Neil Walker singled with two outs, but Daniel Hudson struck out Alvarez. A double play from Sean Rodriguez (who's getting much more playing time than he deserves at this point) led to a scoreless ninth even as Diamondbacks closer Brad Ziegler struggled with his control.