It Takes All Night, But Bucs Take 4-3 Victory Home

Well, Charlie Morton did his thing. He went six shutout frames, giving up four hits and a walk while whiffing six while tossing 84 pitches. Ground Chuck had to skitter through some raindrops; Pedro and Jordy on the left side of the infield didn't exactly put on a clinic, but he worked out of the jams. Morton had a little more to show for his night's work than Frankie - he got to leave with a 1-0 lead.

It went to 2-0 when Starlin Castro allowed a two-out Russ Martin grounder to get under his mitt to score Starling Marte. It was back to the bullpen for the Bucs. Tony Watson lost the first batter and whiffed the next three in the seventh. The Bucs went down quietly.

Mark the Shark ran into eighth inning problems. A bloop and a liner put Cubs at first and second with no one gone. A slow grounder got the first out, but a beaned batter juiced the sacks. Melancon fell behind Nate Schierholtz 2-1 and gave him a cutter right down Broadway; he rolled it to The Kid and the 4-6-3 finished the frame scorelessly.

Or did it? The Cubs challenged the play as Walker's throw pulled Mercer off the bag, and rightfully won. That call made it 2-1, runners at second and third with two outs instead of inning over. Another grounder stopped any further bleeding, but that insurance run went by the boards.

The Cubs challenge was in a gray area. The infamous neighborhood play cannot be reviewed, and the difference between a throw pulling a player off the bag and that are pretty slim. The Pirates couldn't add on; Travis Snider's single was it in the eighth.

Showtime for Jason Grilli. A one out single put some drama into the affair; a long fly ball to The Notch by rookie Mike Olt was loud out #2. That brought up Emilio Bonifacio, who was 3-for-4 with a line out. Make that 4-for-5 with a sharp single to left. Luis Valbuena banged another ball to right, and it was tied with runners on the corners. A Castro pop ended the frame with the score 2-2. The Bucco batters continued to flounder, with just three hits on the night. So it's extra innings again.

Justin Wilson pitched a scoreless frame, giving up just a soft roller single to the right side. The Bucs did about the same damage in their half, with a JT walk. Jeanmar Gomez got the call for the 11th. The inning was dicey. A leadoff double was followed by an out and an intentional walk to Bonifacio. A strikeout during a double steal left Cubs on second and third with two down. Castro flew out, and it was zip for the Cubs. Also for the Pirates; Cutch-Pedro-Russ couldn't get a ball out of the infield.

Anthony Rizzo fouled off a zillion Gomez changeups, then sent a sinker over the wall to make it 3-2. Jose Veras took the bump to close it out. He lost Travis Ishkawa after an extended at-bat with an out. Barmes come on to run for him, and reached second when Mercer got plunked (maybe it is a Reds game). Jose Tabata, who had stayed in the game, hit into a force to put Bucs on the corners.

Marte cashed in the tying run when he drilled a 3-2 pitch into left, scoring Barmes and sending JT to third. Gaby Sanchez grabbed some lumber and walked on five pitches, with Cutch on deck. Andrew worked the count full, then swung through a nasty curve to end the inning.

Stolmy Pimentel took the ball in the 13th; for some reason, Barmes was the new first baseman. He gave up a two out walk with the pitcher on deck. Travis Wood, another hurler, hit for Veras and went down easily on a soft fly to right. Pedro greeted Wesley Walker with an opposite field single to open the Buc half. Martin got dinged in the foot on a 1-2 pitch, and the Pirates were in business. Walker bunted *sigh* but it worked out; the throw went to third and Pedro beat it.

The Cubs beefed about this call, too, and it went upstairs, but this time the Pirates appeared to be on the right side of the camera. They were; the call stood. The Cubs used five infielders, calling in LF Junior Lake, and it worked. Barmes couldn't get the ball in the air, even with just two OF'ers, and hit it sharply to Lake, who went home to force Pedro, and the relay to first nailed Barmes. Sheesh, a 7-2-3 DP. Mercer walked to load the sacks again, but Tabata bounced out to short. Runner on third, less than two outs...just like last year.

Stolmy again lost a Cubby with two outs, then hung an 0-2 slider to Welington Castillo. who whacked it into left to put Bruins at first and third. He came back to K Lake and keep the game knotted. After whiffing the first pair of Pirates, lefty Walker put Cutch aboard on four pitches with Pedro up. He got a slider down the middle and sent it to wall in left, but Lake, who was playing almost at the track, gloved it to end the 14th.

With one gone in the 15th, Bonafacio singled for his ninth hit in two games, and stole second. That was followed by a walk. The Cubs used their last bench player, LH-C John Baker, as Stolmy's three walks have all been to lefties, but it backfired as he went down looking. For good measure he got the next lefty, Rizzo, to golf a fly to left to end the inning.

Carlos Villanueva, last night's loser, got the call. No hanging changeups this time; he worked a quiet 1-2-3 inning. Stolmy did the same the Chi-Town in the 16th. Mercer opened with a single off Rizzo's mitt, and JT traded places with him by bunting into a force out. Marte singled to left, with Tabata hustling into third. Clint woke up Tony Sanchez and sent him to the dish. He got ahead 2-0 and knocked the next pitch into left; at long last, the game was over. Raise the Jolly Roger.

It wasn't pretty and both clubs better hope for rain to give their bullpen a day off, but the win put the Bucs in first place. Both clubs blew countless chances to win -  the Cubs, in particular, were 1-for-16 with RISP - but April bll usually isn't a work of art. If it doesn't sprinkle, the teams have a getaway match at 12:35 this afternoon.

• This was the longest ball game ever played in Pittsburgh at five hours, 55 minutes.
• Jackson plunked Marte in the first; Morton hit the next Cubby he saw, Anthony Rizzo. The umps warned the benches after that lest a Reds game broke out.
• Emilio Bonifacio is the first player since Dante Bichette in 1998 with back-to-back 4+-hit games to start a season. Wade Boggs also did it in 1994.
• The Bucs went into extra innings in the first two games of the season for the first time since 1964....when they did it against the Cubs. They split those games at Forbes Field.
• The Cubs started six LH against Morton. Guess word gets around.
• Replay still needs some work. There is only one replay booth, so simultaneous challenges pile up. And they'll have to work on clarifying some of the rules. We knew there would be bugs to work out; let's hope they make some improvements on the fly rather than waiting until 2015.
• Jameson Taillon had his elbow examined, but the Bucs and he are mum on the results, so we're in wait-and-see, knock-on-wood mode until the FO decides on a course of action.
• David Manel of Bucs Dugout talks to Clint Hurdle about his platoon system, and discovered that it's not purely data-driven, but includes by design the human element in the calculation.
• Jonah Keri of Grantland writes that the Bucs best hope of beating regression is their youth.