Arizona 6, Pittsburgh 5
When: 12:35 PM ET, Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Temperature:
72°
Umpires:
Home -
Gary Cederstrom, 1B -
Gabe Morales, 2B -
Adrian Johnson, 3B -
Eric Cooper
Attendance:
20990
By The Sports Xchange
PITTSBURGH -- After a 1-hour, 33-minute rain delay piled on to a game that took 4 hours, 40 minutes to actually play, Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder David Peralta had pretty much had enough baseball for one day.
And evening.
So, it was more than the thrill of victory Peralta experienced when he scored the go-ahead run on Chris Owings' single in the Diamondbacks' 14-inning, 6-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at an emptied-out PNC Park on Wednesday. It was relief, too,
"That was good," Peralta said. "I didn't want to play one more inning."
Not only was everybody getting tired, a long flight to Miami awaited.
"It was essentially like a day-night doubleheader out there," Arizona left-handed reliever T.J. McFarland said.
Yet there was another good reason to wrap things up: Why give the Pirates another chance? Twice they came back to extend the game on what would have been their last at-bat. Pittsburgh scored a run in the ninth off closer Fernando Rodney to send the game into extra innings, and the Pirates pulled even again on Jordy Mercer's home run off J.J. Hoover with two outs in the 11th after Nick Ahmed's homer in the top of the inning gave the D-backs a 5-4 lead.
"I think the team does a good job of letting that stuff go," said McFarland (3-0), who pitched three scoreless, hitless innings and got the win. "It's a long season."
A hard rain was falling when Mercer, the Pirates' shortstop, came up in the 11th.
"It was pretty brutal," he said. "In situations like that, you're just trying to see. I had drops dripping down my helmet. It was just crazy. ... It was cool to tie that."
Peralta started the 14th with a single off Pirates right-hander Jhan Marinez (o-1), pitching his third inning in relief. Paul Goldschmidt grounded out, with Peralta advancing to second. With first base open, Jake Lamb, who had two doubles and a triple and drove in a pair of runs, was intentionally walked.
Owings, the next hitter, figured that would happen. He had already started preparing in his mind.
"It's happened before," he said. "The biggest thing for me is just being ready. It's part of the game. It worked out well."
In the first inning, Pirates starter Chad Kuhl struck out Goldschmidt, Lamb and Owings -- the heart of the order -- after Arizona put runners on second and third with none out. But in the third, Lamb's triple gave the D-backs a 2-0 lead.
Jose Osuna's double and pinch-hitter Gregory Polanco's single tied the game for the Pirates in the fifth against starter Zack Godley, who retired the first 11 Pirates hitters.
Goldschmidt's solo homer in the sixth followed by Chris Iannetta's RBI infield out put the D-backs up by two. The Pirates continued to chip away, scoring once in their half of the sixth and then in the ninth against Rodney, who blew his third save. The tying run scored when Owings made a splendid play on Mercer's double-play ball with the bases loaded, which prevented potentially further damage.
"I think the game speaks volumes about this team," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "We didn't shut down, one of those character wins. We showed toughness. It was a really special day for this team."
NOTES: RHP Jameson Taillon, who had testicular cancer surgery May 8, will make his second rehab start Friday for the Pirates' Triple-A Indianapolis affiliate. ... LHP Robbie Ray's shutout Tuesday was the first by an Arizona lefty since Joe Saunders on April 27, 2012, in Miami. ... Arizona 1B Paul Goldschmidt was 2-for-17 before hitting his 12th homer of the season in the sixth inning.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Arizona |
|
Pittsburgh |
Zack Godley
|
Player |
Chad Kuhl
|
No Decision |
W/L |
No Decision |
6.0 |
IP |
5.0 |
6 |
Strikeouts |
4 |
7 |
Hits |
3 |
4.50 |
ERA |
3.60 |
Hitting
Arizona |
|
Pittsburgh |
Jake Lamb
| Player |
John Jaso
|
3 |
Hits |
3 |
2 |
RBI |
0 |
0 |
HR |
0 |
7 |
TB |
4 |
.500 |
Avg |
.500 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Arizona
|
14 |
2 |
27 |
.259 |
28 |
14 |
6 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
Pittsburgh
|
10 |
1 |
16 |
.204 |
16 |
13 |
4 |
5 |
0 |
1 |