McCutchen walks off the D’backs

The Pirates got a strong start from Trevor Williams and possibly lost two players to injury, but a walkoff longball from Andrew McCutchen overshadowed all of it, giving them a 4-3 win over Arizona.

Williams turned in his second very good start (both against the D’backs’ strong lineup) and his fourth straight decent-or-better start. He gave up a run in the first when a replay challenge gained Arizona a hit batsman and two, two-out groundball hits brought the runner in. Williams had little trouble after that, giving up just a pair of harmless, two-out hits and one more hit batsman over the next five innings. He walked nobody and fanned three, and kept the fearsome Paul Goldschmidt off the board.

The one large negative note during Williams’ outing was an injury to Gregory Polanco. He ran into the wall in foul ground in right and had to be carted off the field. The Pirates described the injury as “right ankle discomfort” (like I really had to tell you that).

Williams unfortunately left with a no-decision, as the Pirates managed only one run through six innings. That came when Jordy Mercer tripled to right and Josh Bell lined out to center to bring him in. Mercer remained hot, finishing with three hits.

The Pirates broke the tie in the seventh when Jose Osuna, who’d replaced Polanco and who finished 2-for-2, doubled off Jake Lamb’s glove. One out later, McCutchen walked and, after another out, Chris Stewart tripled. Yes, I just double-checked the box and Chris Stewart tripled. That was his second career triple, both this year, and made it 3-1. Stewart got hurt on the play and left for a runner (Tyler Glasnow again).

Felipe Rivero made things interesting in the 8th. He walked the first batter on four pitches and the next reached on an infield hit. Rivero got a double play ball from the next hitter, but John Jaso, replacing Bell at first for defense, couldn’t handle Gift Ngoepe’s throw, leaving runners on the corners. Josh Harrison came through with a diving catch on a foul popup to get the second out and a ground out ended the inning.

Tony Watson wasn’t as successful in the 9th. He appeared to be headed for a rare easy save when he retired the first two hitters, but a line single by the weak-hitting and left-handed David Descalso set up a game-tying HR by Chris Ianetta.

The angst was short-lived, though, as McCutchen, batting against very tough right-hander Archie Bradley, lined his eighth HR of the year TO RIGHT FIELD for a walkoff win.

UPDATE: This sounds pretty preliminary, but Polanco’s injury may not be too bad:

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