North Shore Nine

The Pirates failed to hold on to a 4-1 lead, falling 5-4 to the Astros. Pirates jumped to an early lead, however errors down the stretch and cold hitting cost the Pirates the chance at the sweep.

The 1st went by quickly, the Pirates went 1-2-3 with the only excitement being Andy Haines getting booted arguing bad calls against Andrew McCutchen. In the bottom of the frame Alex Bregman singled as the only news worth at bat for the Astros. In the top of the 2nd, things got fun. Bryan De La Cruz singled in his first Pirates at bat. Joey Bart followed this up with fireworks hitting a home run to left center. Ke’Bryan Hayes then singled, after a Oneil Cruz strikeout, Jared Triolo doubled to make it 3-0 Pirates. After another out Cutch singled to make it 4-0 Pirates heading into the bottom of the 2nd. The Astros got one back in the bottom of the frame, Jeremy Pena making fist on a Cruz error. He then went to 3rd on a Jon Singleton groundout to 1st. Then he scored on a wild pitch by Jake Woodford, leaving the score 4-1 after 2.
In the top of the 3rd Joey Cart again got on base, this time with a single. However, it was sandwiched between three outs therefore no more runs were scored. The Astros scored with 2 outs in the 3rd, fist on a double errors by Bryan Reynold and Cruz with two outs. Then another on a still two out double by Yainer Diaz pushing the game to 4-3. However, a strikeout of Pena left the game 43 going into the 4th.
In the 5th both teams could not score leaving the game as it was going into the 6th. Pirates failed to score in the top of the 6th. In the bottom, disarter. With two outs on the board and one runner on Mauricio Dubon hit a two run home run to centerfield for the 5-4 lead. The seventh came and went with ease for both sides on the pitching side, leaving the score the same. The Pirates threatened to retake the lead n the 8th. Singled by De La Cruz and Bart with two outs gave Pirates fans a glimmer of hope before Ke’Bryan Hayes grounded out. Houston went 1-2-3 in the bottom part of the frame, bringing up the Pirates last chance. Jared Triolo singled with one out in the 9th, however he was stranded at 1st as the Pirates lost 5-4.


The Pittsburgh Pirates will be back in action on Friday versus the Arizona Diamondbacks at 6:40 EST. The projected starters are Brandon Pfaadt for the D-Backs and Luis Ortiz for the Pirates.