Mercer hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the 12th inning, and the Pirates continued their mastery of the Colorado Rockies with a 9-8 marathon win Wednesday night.
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The Rockies overcame a deficit of seven or more runs for the first time since August 25, 2010 against Atlanta, when they trailed 7-0 and 10-1 but won 12-10. Bettis gave up four runs in 6 2/3 innings. He hit a solo homer to left in the first, a solo shot to center in the second and a three-run blast to right in the sixth.
The perennial All-Star entered the game in a 3-for-23 funk on this road trip but rediscovered his swing. Juan Nicasio, who spent his first four seasons with Colorado, will take the mound as the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates go for their ninth straight win at Coors Field in the finale of a four-game series.Nicasio’s star-crossed tenure with the Rockies was most memorable for an incident that ended his rookie season in 2011, when he took a line drive off the skull in his 13th major-league start.
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Starling Marte, center, is congratulated by teammates after scoring along with David Freese on a double by Francisco Cervelli during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, April 27, 2016, in Denver.
“It’s about the process”, McCutchen said.
It was McCutchen’s second career three-homer game.
Gray through 42 pitches in a laborious third when the Pirates scored three runs to take a 4-0 lead. It was erased altogether when leadoff man Parra hit a game-tying homer off left-hander Tony Watson in the eighth. He gave up four runs in three innings before appearing to tweak his left groin while running out a ground ball in the third. Pirates RF Gregory Polanco is 12-for-31 with six RBIs and eight runs scored during a seven-game hitting streak.3. The Rockies loaded the bases on two singles and a walk with one out in the fifth.
Their lead shrank to one after Reynolds bombed Neftali Feliz’s cement-mixer slider an estimated 456 feet to left for a two-run homer in the seventh. I felt myself getting better and better and better and knew it was just a matter of time. “When pitchers have a rough day here, I tell them it’s like having a bad day off a knuckleballer”.
A single by Nolan Arenado, followed by a two-run homer by Mark Reynolds off Neftali Feliz, cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 9-8 in the seventh.
Rockies: C Nick Hundley wasn’t in the lineup Tuesday.
McCutchen’s homers went to three different fields. He said Jackie Robinson used to do a similar thing. Rockies SS Trevor Story was not in the lineup for the first time this season….
“It’s the main reason I do it”, McCutchen said. After a torrid start, his average has dipped to.247. His eight homers in April, though, are the most by an NL rookie since Albert Pujols hit eight with St. Louis in 2001. Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox set the major league record with 10 in 2014.
Rockies relievers Eddie Butler and Justin Miller had sent down nine hitters in a row when Polanco stepped to the plate with two outs in the seventh and drilled Miller’s 3-1 fastball.
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Up next: The Indians will start RHP Josh Tomlin (2-0, 1.54 ERA) tonight in the finale of the three-game series, but Minnesota had yet to announce its starter. The severity of the injury is unclear but it would not be surprising at all to see him land on the disabled list.
