De La Rosa Quiets Sloppy Pirates 5-0

Nice and easy first frame for Charlie. Cutch singled with two outs, but Jorge De La Rosa won a nine-pitch battle with A-Ram, getting a fly out. Chuck used seven pitches to finish the second. DLR worked another clean inning, with three K in the first two frames. Charlie was working on nine in a row until A-Ram booted De La Rosa's grounder. It only cost Morton two extra pitches, tho. Jordy opened with a knock. Charlie bunted, and not so well. Jordy was forced at second and left the field limping after a hard slide. DLR put away the next two Bucs; he's mixed four pitches and kept most of them down so far.

The good news was Jordy took the field in the fourth. Charlie left a 2-0 heater down the middle and DJ LeMahieu drilled it to right for the Rox first hit, and CarGo promptly followed with the second. It kept going; Nolan Arenado doubled in a run. Ben Paulsen followed with a triple; the wheels have completely fallen off, and the Bucs have a short pen today. Charlie worked around that runner nicely, but it's 3-0 and DLR followed up with a shutdown frame.

Charlie & the Bucco bats didn't have it today (photo Justin Aller/Getty)

A Colorado lead off knock was negated in the fifth by a K and DP. Jordy singled with two away for the Pirates, so he did his job by turning the order over. In the sixth, Paulsen singled of Morse's glove and was wild pitched to second. Daniel Descalso walked with two away. Dustin Garneau tapped back to the pitcher; Charlie airmailed the throw to first, allowing two runs to cross the plate to bury the Bucs a little deeper. Pittsburgh was retired in order.

Antonio Bastardo took the ball and was welcomed by a single from Charlie Blackmon, a pop that wouldn't stick in Josh's glove. He stole second, but AB struck out the side to leave him. A-Ram opened with a double, followed by Fran's four pitch walk. Scott Oberg got the call; DLR managed to get tossed griping about strike zone, which has actually been pretty decent, if a bit tight, as Walt Weiss came to pull him. Pedro hit for Morse and whiffed on four pitches. Josh moved them up with a bouncer, but Jordy went down flailing at a slider in the dirt.

The Rox got a walk and nothing else in the eighth; Christian Friedrich took the bump. With two gone, Starling reached when CarGo muffed his pop fly. Jairo Diaz came in to face Cutch and got him to line out. Joe Blanton worked a 1-2-3, eight pitch ninth. John Axford put the Bucs to bed without a peep, and the Rox salvaged the third game of the set.

Give De La Rosa credit; he moved the ball all around the strike zone and had a particularly nasty splitter today. Charlie had one bad inning and another where the Bucs - including and especially Morton -  treated the ball like a primed hand grenade. So it's a day off and back in the saddle at Milwaukee on Tuesday.

• The Pirates had four hits during the contest; Jordy had two of them.
• Mark Melancon & Tony Watson were unavailable (and not needed) today as both have gone three consecutive outings.
• AJ threw an 80-pitch session in the pen today and felt good afterward, with his next rehab outing due Friday. He's on track for a mid September return. Also due for a September recall is Rob Scahill, who tossed a 36 pitch rehab outing at Indy last night.
• Neal Huntington said in his Sunday radio show on 93.7 The Fan that as of now, Tyler Glasnow will not be a September call-up. Our take - look for him in June 2016, after his Super-2 window closes. 
• In another interview, NH told Pirate Prospects writer Sean McCool that the Bucs had successfully claimed a couple of players on waivers, but were unable to work out mutually satisfactory deals to get them to Pittsburgh.
• The Bucs drew 36,271 fans today.
• The West Virginia Power scored four times in the eighth to take a 5-1 win and clinch the Northern Division crown of the Class A South Atlantic (Sally) League.