“He did a nice job, ” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said of Butler. Colorado lost its third straight game, stranding nine baserunners.
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Cole pitched eight scoreless innings to beat the Chicago Cubs last Sunday and has pitched past the sixth in each of last two starts after failing to do so in his first six.
“Marte made a ideal throw, gave (catcher Francisco) Cervelli a throw he can handle”, Weiss said. “We strung some good at-bats together, we just couldn’t get the timely hit”. Marte easily threw out Rockies’ catcher Dustin Garneau at the plate to end the inning. Instead, the Pirates leaned on strong team defense to lock down a 2-1 victory, their fifth in six games, over the Colorado Rockies tonight at PNC Park.
Garneau said he knew he was taking a risk by running on Marte.
Rangers 2, Astros 1 • Colby Lewis pitched seven scoreless innings and Prince Fielder provided the offense with a two-run double to lead host Texas. “But if we can get some sort of consistency to one side of the ball, we can help ourselves out”.
CL Mark Melancon earned his 14th save of the season with a two-hit inning.
Jaso, playing first base, twice robbed DJ LeMahieu of potential extra-base hits by snaring line drives and started an inning-ending double play after catching one in the second.
Jaso grabbed Gerardo Parra’s one-out slow roller in the fourth inning and threw home for the forceout.
Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Taylor homered to help the Nationals score all their runs in the second inning.
-Jaso went 2-for-4 and is 9-for-18 on the first five games of the 10-game homestand.
Nolan Arenado hit his 14th home run of the season in the loss.
Eddie Butler (2-2) allowed two runs – one earned – and seven hits in six innings with no walks and one strikeout.
Both Chatwood and Niese are pitching pretty well right now, but we could see a surplus of runs here. “He got in trouble a little bit and minimized the damage. We were able to limit it”. “He made some big pitches in key times and certainly did his part”.
Niese has not done very well against the Rockies in his career, going 3-3 with a 5.64 ERA against them in 10 starts. Aaron Sanchez (4-1) gave up two runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts in seven innings for the Blue Jays. Boston’s Jackie Bradley Jr. extended his hitting streak to 25 games with a solo home run.
NOTES: The Rockies underwent a bullpen shakeup, bringing up RHP Jordan Lyles and Miguel Castro from Triple-A Albuquerque and sending down RHP Scott Oberg. Lyles was 1-1 in four starts earlier this season, but will move into Bergman’s long reliever role. But the Pirates regained the lead in the bottom of the inning as Rockies starter Eddie Butler threw wildly trying to pick off Marte, who had singled.
Chatwood has won all four road starts this season with a major league-best 0.33 ERA.
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Pirates: LHP Jon Niese (4-2, 5.48) will make his ninth start. This hit by Freese gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 2-1 lead that they would not relinquish.
