Bad Inning Gives Middle Game To Marlins 4-3

Bryan Reynolds dropped a softie into right with an out against Pablo Lopez, but a strike 'em out, throw 'em out DP with Starling facing a 3-2 count ended the frame. With one away, Dario Agrazal gave up his first MLB hit, a soft looper to right, followed by an around-the-horn DP. It was 1-2-3 for the Bucs in the second. Agrazal picked up his first K before Harold Ramirez singled and stole second, but he died there. Eli opened the third with a two-bagger. A grounder got him to third, and a two-out squib that K-Man legged out sent Diaz home. The Fish went down quietly.The Pirates made some noise in the fourth, Starling doubled and plated on J-Bell's knock. Josh pulled a TOOTBLAN and was thrown out at third on Redbeard's bouncer, but no diff; Corey D doubled Colin home. After a grounder, Fraze was walked and a wild pitch put Bucs at second and third, but Dario couldn't help his own cause, tho he did hit the ball hard.

Dario - soft contact, hard luck in debut - photo Butch Gill USA Today Sports

The Marlins opened with a soft liner for a rap, followed by a hit batter. An out later, Harold Ramirez singled home a run, one more score came in on Fraze's throwing error on a potential DP ball, and a single to right tied it. An infield single (home town call, we assume) loaded the bases on a ball Moran should have converted; a ground ball guy like Agrazal needs a little D behind him to succeed. Dario TCB himself - he K'ed the pitcher and Curtis Granderson to keep it there. No noise from Pittsburgh in the fifth. Geoff Hartlieb took over; Agrazal was at 59 pitches and wasn't really barreled up last inning, but Clint had seen enough. At any rate, Geoff was greeted by a single/bloop double combo, and a grounder gave Miami the lead. Ol' Bucco farmhand Ramirez collected his third hit, but Starling gunned down the runner trying to score, and that kept the deficit at one after a tapper to first.

J-Bell opened the sixth with a double, then some bad luck; Redbeard's at 'em liner to second was turned into a twin killing, followed by a Corey K. Hartlieb walked one, but K'ed two for a calm frame. It was 1-2-3 in the seventh for the Bucs. Frankie Liriano came in a gave up a lob single; there have been a lot of soft knocks both ways today. Nick Anderson got the eighth and only yielded a walk. Frankie bopped a batter, and walked another with two gone but worked his way out of it. Sergio Romo answered the ninth-inning bell, and Corey reached with one out on a dying quail to left.Melky hit for Eli (not, not sure why) and hit the first pitch back to Romo to start a game-ending DP.

J-Bell; getting on base is easy; staying on them, not so much - photo Pittsburgh Pirates

How do you lose to a team that can't score? Simple - a dink, a plunk, then throw away a DP feed. C'est la vie; it's not always the pitching. Sometimes it's a team effort.

Notes:

• J-Bell and Corey each had a pair of hits.
• Josh had a tough day on the bases; he was thrown out at third on a chopper to short and doubled off second after a liner.
• Dario became the 12th different Pirates starting pitcher tonight. The Bucs used nine different starters in all of 2018. He's also the 24th guy to pitch for Pittsburgh this campaign, equalling last year's staff total.
• In his last 25 games with three or more at bats, Bryan Reynolds has a hit in 23 of them and multiple hits in 13.
• The Pirates signed utilityman Darnell Sweeney to a minor league deal and assigned him to Indy, per Jason Rollison of DK Sports.The 28-year-old played some for Philly in 2015 and had a cup of coffee with Toronto last year; he was playing indie ball when the Bucs called.