Pittsburgh secured their fourth straight victory behind a strong pitching performance, a couple of 2-run home runs, and a night to remember for Kevin Kramer.
Chris Archer delivered another solid outing in which he threw six innings. Five of those innings were scoreless but Lewis Brinson connected on a 3-run home run in the 6th to spoil Archer’s effort. Pittsburgh’s bullpen took it from there as Rodriguez, Santana, and Vazquez teamed up to deliver three scoreless innings of relief.
Offensively, Pittsburgh provided some firepower of their own. The first home run came off the bat of Josh Bell to give the Pirates an early lead and the second one came late via Jordan Luplow, who entered the game after Polanco injured himself on a Bruce Lee inspired slide into second base.
Kevin Kramer also contributed in offensive efforts while he enjoyed his first Major League start, going 2-4 and delivering an equalizing RBI single late in the game off of a 100+ MPH fastball.
Here’s how the scoring went:
The Pirates struck first in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Corey Dickerson delivered a double to left and Josh Bell brought him home on a 2-run home run to centerfield.
The Marlins answered on a home run of their own in the 6th inning when Lewis Brinson put one over the centerfield wall after a Realmuto double and an Anderson walk. This put the Marlins up 3-2 and ended Archer’s night after six innings.
Pittsburgh recaptured the lead in the bottom of the 7th inning with help from two of their September call ups. Jordy Mercer led the inning off with a double to left. The Pirates followed it up with two quick outs on a Pablo Reyes strike out and a Starling Marte fly out. Kevin Kramer stepped in the box next and hit a 100.6 MPH fastball up the middle, bringing Mercer around to score and tie the game. However, the game would not remain tied for long as Jordan Luplow would deliver a two run home run to right centerfield to put the Pirates up 5-3 and conclude the scoring for the day.
Final score: Pirates 5, Marlins 3
W: Rodriguez (4-2) L: Guerrero (1-3) SV: Vazquez (31)
The Pirates and Marlins are set to do it again on Saturday afternoon when Ivan Nova faces off against Wei-Yin Chen.