Ivan Nova scuffles, Justin Verlander shoves as Pirates lose, 10-0

This one went by pretty quickly, at least the part when the outcome was theoretically in question.

I got home just before first pitch, opened up my usual command center of tabs — the Game Thread, MLB Gameday, TweetDeck and the Brooks Baseball player cards for both starting pitchers — and downed some drive-thru chicken I’d picked up.

By the time I finished that, the Pirates were down, 3-0.

I kept an eye on the proceedings while writing about laundry and going through a piece to go up tomorrow. I looked up and the game was in the seventh inning. The Pirates still had just one hit.

Then things slowed down.

Ivan Nova plunked Miguel Cabrera and the whole internet wondered why Nova was still in the game. Nova gave up a three-run double to Nick Castellanos.

Daniel Hudson cursed, kind of, on TV. Hudson gave up a three-run double to Ian Kinsler.

The Tigers eventually stretched their lead to 10-0, which would be the final score.

Justin Verlander had this game locked down well before it got to that. In eight innings he held the Pirates to one hit — a Josh Bell double in the sixth — striking out six and walking three.

Nova wasn’t likely to match that — not the hits part, especially. He fell behind early and ended up giving up 10 hits in 6 1-3 innings, continuing a concerning slide. He did get five strikeouts to just two walks.

The Tigers got three singles off Nova in the first, taking a 1-0 lead.

John Hicks doubled and scored in the second, then Kinsler clubbed a solo homer for a 3-0 Detroit lead.

Nova settled down a bit from there, staying out of trouble until the seventh, when he was left in a bit too long. Wade LeBlanc got out of that inning, but A.J. Schugel and Hudson couldn’t keep things under wraps in the eighth.

Bell added another double and Chris Stewart added a pinch-hit single off Shane Greene in the ninth, upping the Pirates hit total all the way to three.

The Pirates had previously won three in a row and five of six. They’ll go for the series win with a 1:10 game Thursday afternoon.