SEATTLE – The Pirates scored two runs in the ninth inning, breaking a tie to beat the Mariners, 4-2, this afternoon at Safeco Field.
Jordy Mercer drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single through the middle of the infield, scoring Pedro Alvarez from second. Travis Snider added some insurance when he scampered home on a wild pitch.
The Pirates (48-30) have won a season-high six consecutive games, including five games on the West Coast against American League West opponents.
Pirates reliever Vin Mazzaro earned the win, pitching two scoreless innings.
Medina intentionally walked Snider, who entered the game hitting .249 against right-handed pitching, to bring up Mercer, who entered the game hitting .245 against right-handers but has done more damage at the plate this season than Snider.
Alvarez ignited a dormant Pirates offense with a leadoff single off Charlie Furbush in the ninth inning.
The Pirates waited out another strong outing from Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, who allowed two earned runs on six hits on seven outings. He dominated the Pirates in an earlier meeting this season.
Pirates starter Jeanmar Gomez, pitching for the first time since being placed on the disabled list June 3, looked more polished than rusty. He struck out five batters and allowed one unearned run over five innings.
He threw a season-high 81 pitches, allowing three hits and walking two.
But once he left the game, the Mariners evened the score. Raul Ibanez blasted his 18th homer of the season, a solo shot off Justin Wilson in the sixth inning that tied things, 2-2.
Hernandez struck out 11 batters, cheered on by a large group of yellow-clad fans sitting in the “King’s Court” in left field that more resembled Duke’s Cameron Crazies than a baseball crowd.
But the Pirates pounced on Hernandez’s biggest mistake of the afternoon.
Neil Walker smoked a 3-1 fastball that Hernandez left over the plate, hitting a two run homer that gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning. It was the sixth home run of the season for Walker, who had not left the park since June 12.
Walker missed the Pirates’ first game against Hernandez this season, on the disabled list with a deep cut on his hand. He made the most of his chance to come at the King on Wednesday with two hits in three at-bats against Hernandez.
But after getting a lead on one of the league’s best pitchers, the Pirates seemed determined to give those runs back on defense.
A strikeout pitch to Ibanez got past Russell Martin and rolled to the backstop, allowing Ibanez to take first base. And Justin Smoak followed with a hard-hit ball toward Gaby Sanchez that should have resulted in an inning-ending double play. But, with the shift on against a left-handed batter, there was confusion between Pedro Alvarez and Jordy Mercer as to who needed to cover second base.
The throw skipped past both and rolled into shallow left field, an error on Mercer that allowed Ibanez to take third. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Michael Saunders to halve the Pirates’ lead.
Without those defensive lapses, Gomez would have pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Instead, the Mariners scored a run and Gomez threw 30 pitches.
The Pirates put some pressure on Hernandez in the second inning when Garrett Jones and Alvarez hit back-to-back singles, putting runners on first and second with no outs. Then, Hernandez took control of the inning. He got Walker to hit into an infield fly, struck out Sanchez and got Travis Snider to ground out to first to escape the inning without either runner advancing.
Gomez got into a jam of his own in the third inning when Henry Blanco – who is a 41-year-old, 220-pound catcher – moved from first to third on a two-out single by Nick Franklin. But Gomez got Kyle Seager to chase a slider in the dirt for an inning-ending strikeout.
First Published: March 24, 2016, 5:15 p.m.
