Bucs On Rocky Mountain High; Spank Rox Again, 11-4

The Bucs continued their hot early hitting; K-Man homered to lead off again, this time on the first pitch. A single by B-Rey, a boot and Redbeard's sac fly made it 2-0 against Tim Melville. Big Joe gave up a one-out rap, followed by a DP for a clean slate. In the second, singles by Fraze, Stalls and Newman, with an error tossed in, produced a run with an out, and the latter pair came home on Reynold's two-bagger. Starling walked, and an out later, so did Moran, but no two out magic.The Rox got one back on Ryan McMahon's shot into the seats. Wes Parsons got the ball in the third for Colorado. Jake and K-Man collected knocks, but were left aboard. The Rox used a single-double-sac fly trifecta to plate a second run. J-Bell's dinger in the fourth got the run back and Joey O's bomb tacked on a tally for good measure. The Rockies answered with a triple and sac fly to make it a 7-3 game. Stalls walked to open the fifth and was bunted to second, where he died. The Rox left a runner on first.

Jake had three hits tonight - image Pittsburgh Pirates

Bryan Shaw got called for the sixth and put the Bucs away 1-2-3. Big Joe was touched for a harmless single. Jake McGee worked the seventh. Fraze legged out a squib and plated on Pablo's two-out, pinch hit double that was six inches shy of clearing the fence. No diff; he scored when McGee couldn't handle a flip to first on Newman's grounder, and K-Man scored when B-Rey smacked a two-bagger to pile it up to 10-3. Michael Feliz (Moose was at 101 pitches) fanned a pair of Rox in a clean frame. Sam Howard tossed the eighth and struck out the side around a Redbeard rap. Parker Markel took over and Daniel Murphy knocked his second pitch out of the yard. PM then whiffed two of the next three hitters. In the ninth, the Bucs got back-to-back raps from Stalls and Erik Gonzalez, and Starling knocked Jake home with two outs. Parker finished the job cleanly. Raise the Roger.

Notes:

• The top of the order - K-Man and B-Rey - collected six hits, scored four runs and chased home five. Reynolds is batting .332 and Newman .313. The bottom of the order - Fraze and Stalls - banged out five hits and plated four times.
• The Pirates have scored nine or more runs in five of their past eight games and hit double figures three times. And per Joe Block, Pittsburgh has rung up 15 or more hits in three consecutive games for first time since May 27-29th, 1936.
• The Bucco bullpen has given up homers in seven straight games.