Greinke and D-backs unfazed by rain delays / Bucs fall 7-2

Pittsburgh fell in game three of the series without much fight, losing 7-2 in what was ‘Sean Rodriguez Walk Off’ bobblehead night. The purpose of the bobblehead night was to commemorate a game on August 6^th, 2017 in which Rodriguez rejoined the team and hit a walk off home run in the 12^th inning, allowing the Pirates to improve their record to 54-57. You might be wondering why this is relevant now and bobblehead worthy – I am too.

Bobbleheads aside, the teams dealt with weather induced adversity during their matchup, today. Rain delays in the 1^st and 4^th innings totaled to approximately an hour and a half worth of unplanned downtime. While that downtime didn’t seem to affect Arizona’s hitting or pitching, Pittsburgh seemed to lag in both departments.

Musgrove struggled with command and got knocked around because of it. He only managed four innings while allowing seven hits, three walks, and five earned runs. Richard Rodriguez fared much better while throwing three innings of relief, striking out five, and allowing one run on a Goldschmidt solo shot. Meanwhile, Greinke was solid, throwing six scoreless inning and limiting Pirates’ batters to two hits.

Here’s how the scoring went:

Arizona struck in the first inning when Peralta grounded a triple down the right field line with Goldschmidt on first base. Meadows fielded the ball in the corner and fired to the relay man, who happened to be Sean Rodriguez. Rodriguez relayed the ball towards home attempting to nab Goldschmidt trying to score but the throw wasn’t even close. Rodriguez’s throw sailed, bouncing off the top of Pittsburgh’s dugout and was ultimately ruled a dead ball, allowing Peralta to score on the very same play.

The D-backs continued the scoring in the 3^rd inning when Goldschmidt walked, Lamb reached on an infield single, and Peralta delivered an RBI double, scoring Goldschmidt. Musgrove intentionally walked Descalso to set up the double play but the next batter, Chris Owings, hammered a single off of the center field wall. Marte looked like he had a beat on the ball but could not bring it in, thus allowing Lamb to score on the play. The Bucs escaped the inning without further damage.

Zack Greinke got in the action offensively in the 4^th inning when he led off with a double to left. Two pitches later, Jon Jay doubled to right, bringing Greinke home to score.

Leading off the top of the 7^th inning, Paul Goldschmidt lined a solo home run into the first row of the left field seats that caromed off an arm and a head of a couple of Pirates fans. Pittsburgh’s faithful retaliated by throwing the ball back onto the field of play – good to see some fight in this team.

Pittsburgh mustered a run in the bottom half of the inning after Elias Diaz singled, advanced to second on a Bell ground out, and finally scored on a Jordy Mercer single.

Arizona tacked one more run on in the 9^th on a Deven Marrero walk and singles from Jay and Lamb. The Bucs eventually got out of the inning on a confirmed challenge in which Peralta was doubled off of first base on a Descalso line out.

Pittsburgh scored their second and final run in the bottom of the 9^th inning when Jacob Stallings singled, advanced to second on a Polanco ground out, and scored on a Josh Bell single up the middle.

Final score: D-backs 7, Pirates 2

The Bucs and D-backs will face off tomorrow in the series finale at 1:35pm. Pittsburgh will be sending Trevor Williams to the hill to face Clay Buchholz.