April 26, 2014
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Francisco Liriano bends over as teammates gather around him during the third inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday, April 26, 2014, in St. Louis. Liriano left the game soon after. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle already had seen enough attrition for one day.
On Saturday morning, All-Star reliever Jason Grilli was placed on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained left oblique suffered a few days ago. Also disabled with a strained left hamstring incurred Friday was catcher Russell Martin, who pulled off a rare trifecta for a catcher last year of reaching double figures in doubles, triples and home runs.
Now comes the third inning of the Pirates’ game with the Cardinals on Saturday at Busch Stadium and his top pitcher from last year’s wild-card playoff team, lefthander Francisco Liriano, is doubled over on the mound. Fortunately for Hurdle and the Pirates, Liriano was not having a relapse with his left elbow that has caused him problems in his career.
First, it was a nosebleed Liriano had after the second inning. Liriano told Hurdle he was a little dizzy before he hit in the third but that he thought would be all right.
After flying out to end the inning, Liriano took some extra time in the dugout before returning to the mound.
“I didn’t want to come out of the game,” he said. “But I wasn’t getting any better at all. I just felt weak and queasy.”
Hurdle said, ‘’Once he started to make pitches, it just snowballed on him. When he doubled over, he finally realized he had enough and he was just trying to catch his breath.
“When they told me Liriano was light-headed, I got light-headed,” cracked Hurdle.
After Liriano had walked pitcher Tyler Lyons and had gone 3-0 on Matt Carpenter, Hurdle removed the pitcher who held the Cardinals to a total of two runs in three regular-season starts last year.
“My mom and a couple of my brothers bleed a lot, too, so I don’t know what it is,” Liriano said. “I felt weird. I couldn’t get well today and yesterday. We’ve got to figure out what it is.”
But, without Liriano, the Pirates did not drift into their fifth consecutive defeat.
Rookie Stolmy Pimentel, a 24-year-old from the Dominican Republic, relieved and finished the walk to Carpenter. In a scoreless game, he had two runners on with Jhonny Peralta, Matt Holliday, Matt Adams, Yadier Molina and Allen Craig next up.
Pimentel got Peralta on a fly to center and struck out Holliday, who has driven in the only St. Louis runs in the last two games.
Adams singled to deep second, or short right, depending on your perspective as second baseman Neil Walker saved the run.
The bases were loaded for Molina, one of baseball’s hottest hitters amid a 15-game hitting streak and the subject of Yadier Molina Jersey Day that attracted a sellout crowd of 46,254.
The count went full, Molina fouled off three pitches and then Pimentel fanned him with a slider on the 10th pitch..
“Sometimes story lines get changed,” Hurdle said.
Indeed, the Pirates would score four off Lyons in the next inning and the Pittsburgh bullpen (five relievers) did the the rest in a 6-1 win that was awarded to Pimentel, who worked 2 2/3 innings.
“Pimentel pitched as big an inning for us as we’ve had pitched all year,” Hurdle said.
Pitching coach Ray Searage added: “The kid earned his stripes today. Sometimes when you come into a game like that, you don’t have time to think. All you do is react instinctively and throw strikes.
“The kid did a great job. It could have been really ugly.”
Part-time regular Jose Tabata had three more hits for the Pirates, figuring in three runs, and running his career average to .345 for 116 at-bats at Busch Stadium.
No comments:
Post a Comment