Despite Hits, Rockies Fall To Pirates
PITTSBURGH (The Sports Xchange) -- Gerrit Cole knows exactly why the Pittsburgh Pirates kept dominating the Colorado Rockies, even on a night when he certainly didn't have his dominant stuff.
"Defense," he said. "Stellar defense."
Cole made his second successive effective start with the help of some strong Pittsburgh defense and the Pirates beat the Rockies for the eighth straight time dating to last season, winning 2-1 Friday night.
David Freese's RBI single drove in the go-ahead run in the Pirates' sixth, and left fielder Starling Marte made the lead stand up by throwing out Dustin Garneau as he tried to score on Charlie Blackmon's two-out single in the seventh.
"It was a world class effort on how to play defense in the major leagues," Cole said.
The Pirates won for the fifth time in six games and are 14-3 against NL West teams at PNC Park the last two seasons. The Rockies, 0-4 against the Pirates this season, are 1-3 to start a difficult a difficult three-city road trip to St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Boston.
Cole (5-3) wasn't as sharp as he was in pitching eight shutout innings against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, giving up 10 walks while striking out none in seven innings -- the first time in his starting career he hasn't had a strikeout.
"We're out there pitching for wins, not stat lines," Cole said. "I wasn't able to create as many swings and misses as I needed to. But when the defense is playing like that, you've just got to trust them."
That defense turned double plays in each of the first two innings, and Marte -- who also scored the winning run -- threw out his sixth baserunner of the season, tying him in NL outfield assists with the Padres' Matt Kemp.
"Sometimes you think you've got a chance," said Marte, who owns one of the majors' strongest outfield arms. "That's my job, to make an out every time I can, and throw the ball hard."
Rockies manager Walt Weiss agreed with third base coach Stu Cole's decision to send Garneau home.
"Marte made a perfect throw, gave (catcher Francisco) Cervelli a throw he can handle," Weiss said. "That was a good play right there."
Cole, winning at PNC Park for the first time in three starts this season, was followed by Tony Watson, who pitched a scoreless eighth, and Mark Melancon finished up for his 14th save in as many opportunities despite giving up two hits.
"I felt like we had real nice approach against Cole, made him work," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "We strung some good at-bats together, we just couldn't get the timely hit."
The Rockies were limited to Nolan Arenado's MLB-leading 14th home run, which briefly tied it at 1 in the sixth. 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. That put Marte in position to score on Freese's single.
Butler had been getting his fastball by Freese, but he couldn't on that pitch.
"He wasn't doing a whole lot with it, but (he) got enough to get it through," Butler said.
Butler (2-2) gave up seven hits and struck out one over six innings, with Andrew McCutchen's double in the first scoring John Jaso, who had singled.
"Two pitches in the first, bad sliders, over the plate, ended us getting into trouble and but (I) was able to limit," Butler said.
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. RHP Christian Bergman went on the disabled list with an oblique injury. .... Lyles was 1-1 in four starts earlier this season, but will move into Bergman's long reliever role. ... The Pirates gave 3B Jung Ho Kang the day off from starting despite his five homers in 35 at-bats since being activated May 6. INF David Freese started at third base. ... Rockies minor league RHP Jose Rodriguez was suspended for 72 games for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs -- in his case, an anabolic steroid. Rodriguez, 20, spent all of last season with the DSL Rockies of the Dominican Summer League. ... Pirates manager Clint Hurdle likes how John Jaso is getting comfortable at first base -- a position he played in only two major league games before this season. Jaso backed up that pregame support by throwing out Arenado at the plate in the fourth and turning LeMahieu's line drive into a double play in the second.
