North Shore Nine

The Pittsburgh Pirates won game two of the series against the Houston Astros 6-2. Bailey Falter pitched very well and the bullpen missing it two best pieces shut the door. Joey Bart and Connor Joe both had multi-hit nights and Michael A. Taylor hit his second home run in as many days leading the Pirates offensively.

The Pirates tried to strike early getting men on first and third with two outs, but they were unable to score. Bailey Falter then came out and had a 1-2-3 inning. In the top of the 2nd, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Connor Joe lead off with singles. Jared Triolo then ripped a ball, to shortstop, which ended up in a run scoring double play. The 3rd went by without either team scoring, or really threatening to score either.
In the 4th the Pirates added a pair of runs. After Rowdy Tellez struck out, Joey Bart singled, Hayes flew out, then Connor Joe singled. During which pitcher Hunter Brown threw the ball away allowing Bart to score from first and putting Joe on 3rd. Triolo then doubled to push the game to 3-0. Yainer Diaz then opened the bottom of the frame with a solo shot cutting the Pirate lead to 3-1. Falter then buckled down striking out the next two Astro’s and getting Jon Singleton to fly out. In the 5th Andrew McCutchen singled, Bryan Reynolds reached on an error. However the Pirates were not able to take advantage again as Oneil Cruz struck out, Tellez flew out and Bart struck out to end the threat. In the bottom of the frame Falter got a fly out, then after a Chas McCormick single he got Jose Altuve to ground into a double play.
In the top of the 6th the Astros were cruising with two quick outs. Then Triolo earned a 8 pitch walk with two outs, bringing up Michael A. Taylor. Taylor hit a 2-1 pitch 403 feet into left center for a 2 run home run, chasing Hunter Brown from the game. Andrew McCutchen greeted the new pitcher Bryan King with a 8 pitch at bat, though in the end King got the best and struck Cutch out. Falter came out for the 6th having only thrown 53 pitches through the first five frames. He got Alex Bregman to fly out after 7 pitches, then after a Yordan Alvarez he as pulled for Dennis Santana. Diaz then singled, coupled with a Cruz error, put men on the corners with one out. Jeremy Pena then had a RBI ground out cutting the Pirate lead to 5-2. Santna however then got a fly out to get out of the frame.
The 7th went fast as the Pirates went 1-2-3 in their end of the frame, with the Astros following suit. In the 8th the the Pirates added one run with a Cutch bases loaded walk to make it 6-2. Kyle Nicolas came in for the bottom of the 8th, ran into a little trouble, but came out the other side without giving up a run. Pirates failed to score in the 9th, going into the bottom of the frame with the four run league. Hunter Stratton entered for the Pirates for the end of the game.

The Pirates will finish the Houston series, and he road trip, tomorrow at 8:10 PM EST. Framber Valdez will go for Houston, with TBD pitching for the Pirates.