The Pirates jumped on CC Sabathia early, Tyler Glasnow had a relatively promising outing and the Bucs added a couple unearned runs late for a 6-3 victory over the Yankees on Friday night at PNC Park.
Sabathia wasn't fooling the Pirates in the first couple innings. Mercer smacked a leadoff home run to center field, followed by singles by Josh Harrison and Andrew McCutchen. A one-out infield hit from David Freese plated Harrison, but Francisco Cervelli hit into a double play to get Sabathia off the hook a little. Jose Osuna picked things back up in the second with a triple to right field, his first major league hit, and Josh Bell, batting right-handed, drilled an 87-MPH fastball out over the Northside Notch for a 4-0 Pirates lead.
The Pirates wouldn't get a hit in the next four innings, though, and the Yankees pulled within 4-3.
Glasnow struck out five and walked two, but allowed seven hits and three runs in 4 2-3 innings. It wasn't great, but he was much better than he'd shown in some earlier starts and he kept a lid on things early on, getting out of a couple jams.
With two on in the first he struck out Aaron Judge looking on a fastball to end the inning. Brett Gardner scored on Chase Headley's double and Osuna's misplay in the third, and there were two on when Greg Bird came to the plate with two outs. Bird crushed a foul ball, but Glasnow came back and struck out Bird with a lovely hook. (I feel obligated to remind you Greg Bird has a pretty awesome, famous cat.)
Jacoby Ellsbury and Judge each got two-out singles in the fifth, and Harrison got to, but couldn't stop Bird's grounder and both runners scored, pulling the Yankees within one and ending Glasnow's night.
The Pirates added two runs in the seventh. Starlin Castro dropped McCutchen's tailing pop-up with two outs, allowing Mercer to score, and Freese singled in Cutch to up the Pirates lead to 6-3.
Juan Nicasio, Felipe Rivero and Daniel Hudson pitched a solid 3 1-3 innings of relief, the only real trouble coming for Hudson in the eighth, when a two-out Freese error was followed by a hit, but Hudson fanned our old buddy Matt Holliday.
Tony Watson got two quick outs in the ninth, but hits by Castro and Ellsbury brought the enormous Judge up with the opportunity to tie it up. Judge bounced into a fielder's choice, though, and all was well.