Tigers sprint past Pirates 10-7

Despite a quality start by Rich Hill, the Pittsburgh Pirates lost to the Detroit Tigers, 10-7, Thursday afternoon at LECOM Park. The Pirates matched the Tigers with 13 hits, but poor relief pitching allowed the Tigers to pull away late in the game.

Akil Baddoo gave Detroit its first lead in the third after stealing home, but Bryan Reynolds tied it in the bottom half after grounding into a double play that scored Kevin Plawecki.

The Tigers then added two the following half-inning. Nick Maton jumped on an errant pitch by Wil Crowe and sent it over the wall in right to notch the first, then Kerry Carpenter tripled home a run later on. Andre Lipcius added another in the fifth on a ground out.

While they were down, the Pirates were not out as they fought back to tie the game at four in the sixth. Jack Suwinski hit into a sacrifice fly. Canaan Smith-Njigba followed with a RBI single, then Tucupita Marcano drove in the tying run with a double.

The tie wouldn’t last long, though, as the Tigers scored five runs off Angel Perdomo and Colin Selby in the seventh, then added their tenth off a double by Donny Sands in the eighth.

The Pirates inched closer in the ninth with a three-run home run by Drew Maggi, but Malcom Nunez struck out a few hitters later to end the game.

Marcano, Ji-hwan Bae, and Nick Gonzales each tallied two hits. Osvaldo Bido tallied the only scoreless inning on the mound for Pittsburgh. The Pirates also tallied three errors.

The Pirates head to Clearwater tomorrow to battle the Philadelphia Phillies at 1:05 p.m.