Snakes Sink Pirates 11-1

The Bucs went 1-2-3 to Zack Greinke; not so the D-Backs to Archie. He walked three of the first four batters; they all scored on a single, Redbeard boot and sac fly. J-Bell started the second with a two-bagger. He moved up on a grounder, but died at third. Archie found the zone, striking out the side. Both sides went in order in the third. Starling and J-Bell singled in the fourth, but a Gregory DP ball in between effectively killed the frame. In the fourth, the first two Snakes went down with the eight hitter up, and it fell apart at that unlikely point. A double, walk to the pitcher, wild pitch, stolen base, Jarrod Dyson single for a pair, another stolen base and Eduardo Escobar homer made it 7-0. Arch never did get that third out; Montana DuRapau came in turn the page. Redbeard's leadoff knock went for naught in the fifth. Chris Stratton took the hill and Adam Jones went long on his first pitch before he struck out the side, with a two-out double thrown in.

Neither club made any sixth inning noise. The Pirates made not a peep in the seventh, while the D-Backs managed two singles (a bloop and grounder) but no more runs as Stratton K'ed another pair. The first two Bucs fanned in the eighth; then Greinke was attended to by the trainers; he apparently tweaked something and left the game; hopefully it's minor. Yoshihisa Hirano took over and got the third K. Again, the Snakes made the third out a hard one to get; a, single, double, and Blake Swihart homer - an inside the park job, yet, caroming off the RC field wall - came after two were gone before Stratton could shut the gate. Andrew Chafin took the hill for the ninth. Fraze singled to begin, and Gregory walked an out later. With two gone, the D-Backs switched pitchers; guess Chafin at 25 pitches hit his limit. Yoan Lopez came on and gave up a run-scoring knock to Melky after the maneuvering. But he did coax Redbeard to bounce out to bring it to a conclusion.

Archie wasn't the answer today. 2019 Topps Heritage

Well, the importance of that third out was shown today. And we're guessing Stratton was getting an audition for a spot in the rotation; the results were decidedly mixed (four innings, four runs, seven hits, seven K). But the way Greinke owned the Bucs, never breaking 91 on the radar but with complete command and nice movement, it prob didn't make much diff. Lose by one, lose by 100, you still lose. Now to try to make it a successful road trip by finishing strong at San Diego. The Friars are like the Bucs, kinda surprisingly hangin' around .500, and it should be a competitive set of matches.

Notes: 

• The Buccos finished up with six hits; J-Bell had a pair.There were no walks drawn and no boots from the Snakes, so six runners was it.
• Glad to get outta town: The Pirates ended up 1-6 v the Snakes; they're 20-13 against the rest of the league. The Pirates have lost eight blowout (five or more runs) games this year; five have been against Arizona, which outscored the Bucs by 35 runs.
• Pitcher's Achilles Heel - the Pirates, going into today, had the worse stranded runner rate in the NL (and 29th in the MLB) at 68.8% per Fangraphs. On the flip side, it takes Pittsburgh a lot of work to score - their 2.21 hits to create a run is 29th in the majors, ahead of only Miami per Team Rankings.
• The Bucs take the last lap of their road trip, heading to San Diego for a four-game set. After an off day Tuesday, they play 10-of-14 at home. They face the Rox, Dodgers and Brewers (for the first time) at PNC with four games at Cincy in three days in between.