PITTSBURGH — Francisco Liriano seems to be back on the right path. After throwing his worst outing of the year June 3 against the Los Angeles Angels, the Pirates’ left-hander threw six innings of four-hit ball and struck out eight St. Louis Cardinals, while giving up just one earned run.
The Cardinals, however, scored three unearned runs in the fifth inning after a Chris Stewart passed ball extended the frame and Matt Holliday clubbed a three-run home run over the Clemente Wall to give the Cardinals all the runs they would need to beat the Pirates, 5-1.
“He was good in a lot of different places,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said of Liriano’s start. “He repeated his delivery stayed on a line throughout his delivery really well. He had a good mix of pitches throughout the game. He and Stewart worked really well together. The secondary pitches were really aggressive. Swing-and-miss was back big time.”
The eight strikeouts were the most in a game in over a month for Liriano, who spent his extra bullpen working on repeating his delivery and working at a consistent pace. Keeping all of his pitches on the same plane coming out of his hand is important to getting swings and misses, especially with his slider, which usually finishes outside of the strike zone. Five of his eight strikeouts on the evening came via the slider and five of the six swinging punch outs came from his primary breaking ball.
“The slider and the changeup have an opportunity to look like a strike out of the hand,” Hurdle said. “That’s as big as anything for me. His alignment through his delivery was really consistent.”
“I feel like I threw the ball better today than the last couple of times,” agreed Liriano. “I just have to stick with the process, keep working in between starts and get better with all my pitches. … Everything feels a lot better, physically and mentally too, so I just have to keep working on it and get better every start.”
One trend that Liriano did not correct was the number of pitches outside of the strike zone. Of his 103 total pitches, only 58 went as strikes. He had three walks, and the extra pitches helped send him back to the clubhouse after six innings, while Carlos Martinez pitched into the ninth for St. Louis.
BUCS CARVED UP
There’s no two ways around it: Martinez dominated the Pirates’ hitters. The Pirates didn’t advance a runner into scoring position until the seventh inning. Of the first three men to reach base, two were erased with a double play.
“There’s nights good pitching stops good hitting,” Hurdle said. “If anyone’s got the time, watch the tape tonight. Watch every pitch thrown. That was good stuff. It was hard tonight. He executed very well. I liked the battles we put up there. There’s some nights when you just tip your hat and move on.”
Andrew McCutchen was Martinez’s most frequent victim, going 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. It’s been a rough stretch of games for McCutchen, who is now 3 for his last 21 and has seen his batting average fall to .245.
“[Martinez] seemed to be working all of his pitches, especially his fastball,” McCutchen said. “He was getting ahead, locating and doing a really good job of it all throughout the game.”
McCutchen hasn’t been the only Pirates’ hitter to see his numbers take a tumble recently, and that probably has something to do with the quality of the opposition. The Pirates have faced Steven Matz, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Chad Bettis, Michael Wacha and Martinez over the last six games. In that span, they’re averaging just over three runs per game.
The Pirates were able to wear down the Mets’ high-quality starters by taking pitches and working counts, and that’s the same approach McCutchen says they needs to keep, regardless of who is on the mound.
“The main thing is going out and trying to have productive at-bats,” he said. “You’re not going to win every battle. You just have to learn from it.”
On that front, the Pirates should hope they’ve done some homework, because road ahead isn’t going to get any easier. After Mike Leake on Sunday, they’ll go back through the Mets’ rotation and then visit Jake Arrieta and the Chicago Cubs.
“We know what we need to do,” McCutchen said. “We’re grown men in here. We’re going to win some and lose some, but we have show up and be ready to go the next day.”
CAN’T CATCH A BREAK
Stewart left the game in the eighth inning after he was involved in a collision at home plate in the top of the seventh. Starling Marte threw out Jeremey Hazelbaker, who was trying to score from second on a Jhonny Peralta single, but Hazelbaker slid into Stewart’s left ankle on the play. Newly acquired backstop Erik Kratz replaced Stewart.
That ankle has been something of a target for Stewart lately. He fouled two pitches off it this week and spent his afternoon in the training room, attempting to get the fluid drained from the pair of deep bruises. With one more added to the mix, he wasn’t sure about transferring his weight forward to hit.
Kratz, who had arrived at the ballpark just as the game was starting, got a crash course on the Pirates’ pitchers.
“He got thrown into the fire, unfortunately,” Stewart said. “I tried to let him know as much as I could. He’s a veteran guy. He knows what he’s doing behind the plate, so he was able to get the job done back there. I’m going to sit down and talk to him tonight about the rest of the guys and hopefully he goes in there tomorrow and does a great job.”
Stewart will continue to receive treatment for his ankle and his status for Sunday is uncertain.
NOTES
• The Pirates still have no further update on the status of injured starting pitcher Gerrit Cole. He was in the team’s clubhouse after the game but did not speak with reporters.
• Both relief pitchers that were recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier in the day pitched. Rob Scahill gave up one run on three hits over two innings and Arquimedes Caminero allowed one hit in his only inning.
• Gregory Polanco had the Pirates’ only extra-base hit, a double in the seventh. He scored the Pirates’ only run on Josh Harrison’s sacrifice fly three batters later.
• Jon Niese will face Leake in the series finale Sunday. That game has a 5:15 p.m. first pitch and will be televised on ESPN.
