Marte hits 3-run homer in 13th, Pirates rally past A’s 5-3
By CHRIS MUELLER Associated Press
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Starling Marte hit a game-ending three-run homer in the 13th inning, rallying the Pittsburgh Pirates past Oakland 5-3 on Sunday after the Athletics scored twice in the top of the inning.
Cole Tucker started Pittsburgh’s comeback with a one-out single off Fernando Rodney (0-2). Jung Ho Kang walked and Adam Frazier drove in Tucker with a single before Marte drilled a ball out to center.
Tyler Lyons (1-0) got the win despite struggling in his Pirates debut. After pitching a 1-2-3 12th, he walked the first two batters in the 13th and allowed an RBI single to Kendrys Morales and a run-scoring double to Stephen Piscotty before getting pitcher Yusmeiro Petit to hit into an inning-ending double play.
A’s slugger Khris Davis, last year’s major league home run leader, left in the second inning with a left hip bruise after crashing into the left field wall chasing a popup.
The Pirates improved to 6-2 in extra-inning games and 6-1 in interleague play. They are above .500 at 16-15 for the first time since April 25.
Pittsburgh starter Jordan Lyles gave up one run and five hits over 6 2/3 innings. Lyles looked more like the pitcher that began the season tossing 11 scoreless innings in his first two home starts and less like the one holding a 6.00 ERA over his previous two outings.
The teams were tied 1-1 going into extras. Pittsburgh got on the board in the second when Josh Bell doubled and scored on Colin Moran’s sacrifice fly. A’s pinch-hitter Robbie Grossman tied it in the seventh with a single.
Lyles faced a jam in the fifth after he walked three consecutive batters with two outs but forced Ramon Laureano to ground into a forceout at second.
The Pirates had a golden opportunity with runners on first and third with zero outs in the sixth but couldn’t capitalize as Gregory Polanco flied out, Bell struck out and Melky Cabrera lined out to end the inning.
Oakland starter Frankie Montas allowed a run and five hits over six innings. He struck out five while lowering his ERA to 2.75.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: Keone Kela was not available to pitch after exiting Saturday’s game with right shoulder tightness. General manager Neal Huntington said Kela will be evaluated Monday.
UP NEXT
Athletics: The A’s return home for a three-game series against Cincinnati on Tuesday, where Mike Fiers (2-3, 6.81) will take the mound coming off a solid seven-inning outing against Toronto on April 26.
Pirates: Steven Brault will get the start Tuesday against Texas in place of Jameson Taillion, who was ruled out for a month Saturday with an elbow flexor tendon strain. This season, Brault has an 8.31 ERA with 11 strikeouts over 8 2/3 innings of work out of the bullpen.
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Newman’s go-ahead triple rallies Pirates by A’s 6-4
By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kevin Newman expected to be part of a platoon at shortstop with Erik Gonzalez when he made the Pittsburgh Pirates out of spring training. A cut to the middle finger of his right hand a month ago sent Newman to the injured list instead.
Gonzalez soon joined Newman on the injured list with a broken collarbone and the arrival of top prospect Cole Tucker during their absence forced the Pirates to re-evaluate how they wanted to use Newman when he returned.
When Pittsburgh welcomed Newman back on Friday, manager Clint Hurdle told him to be ready for whatever. Whatever arrived on Saturday, when Newman ripped the go-ahead triple in the seventh inning to lift the Pirates to a 6-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
Newman came on in the sixth as a pinch runner during an aggressive sequence in which Hurdle burned three of his four bench players in an effort to erase a one-run deficit. While the moves didn’t work at first — the Pirates left the bases loaded — it set the stage for Newman to step to the plate in the seventh and give the Pirates a welcome win on the day it lost ace Jameson Taillon for a least a month with a strained right (throwing) elbow.
“Obviously, we’ve had a lot of guys go down with injuries, so it’s going to take everybody and everything we all got to win and we know that,” Newman said.
Newman’s first at-bat since April 8 came with runners on the corners and two outs in the seventh against J.B. Wendelken (0-1). Newman fouled off the first pitch and then sent a laser to the right-field corner that rolled around long enough for Bryan Reynolds to score all the way from first to give Pittsburgh the lead.
“It was just unfortunate he got up under it and pushed it on down the line,” Wendelken said. “Not much I can do about it. It was just a good pitch and a good piece of hitting.”
Francisco Cervelli followed with an RBI single to lift the Pirates to their third win in four games.
“It definitely gives me a lot of confidence,” Newman said. “I like to be the guy that comes up in that situation. I want to come through for my teammates.”
Josh Bell homered twice for Pittsburgh, taking Oakland starter Chris Bassitt deep in both the second and third innings for the first two-home run game of the first baseman’s career. Bell already has eight homers on the season, a number he didn’t reach in 2018 until mid-August. Reynolds finished with two hits to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, tying Polanco for the longest by a Pittsburgh player to start their career since 1901.
Michael Feliz (1-0) picked up the win in relief after coming on in the seventh when Keone Kela exited with discomfort in his right shoulder after giving up a leadoff double to Oakland rookie Skye Bolt. Felipe Vazquez worked around a two-out single by Marcus Semien to collect his ninth save.
“There’s going to be more guys going down throughout the year,” said Pittsburgh starter Trevor Williams, who gave up four runs in six innings. “Hopefully not as many as going on right now, but for guys to step up like JB did tonight and Kevin coming off the DL and having a big hit for us, it’s huge.”
OAKLAND ACHES
Kris Davis, Kendry Morales and Matt Chapman all had two hits apiece for the Athletics, but Oakland fell to 1-7 on its current nine-game road trip when Chris Bassitt and three relievers couldn’t hold an early lead.
The A’s, who had a season-high 14 runs Friday night to end a six-game losing streak, jumped on Williams early. Davis and Stephen Piscotty sandwiched RBI singles around a run-scoring triple by Morales to give Oakland a quick 3-0 advantage in the first.
Bassitt, however, gave up home runs to Bell in both the second and third and needed 97 pitches to get through five innings. Wendelken’s bumpy seventh in which he gave up three runs on four hits boosted his ERA to 5.85.
“He’s going through a rough patch,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said of Wendelken. “Still, we have a lot of faith in him.”
ROTATION JUMBLE
With Taillon and Chris Archer both on the injured list, the Pirates will turn to relievers Steven Brault and Nick Kingham to start during a brief two-game interleague series with Texas next week.
TRAINER’S ROOM
A’s: OF Nick Martini (right knee sprain) will run the bases Tuesday and will then go out for a rehab assignment barring a setback. … RHP Sean Manaea (left shoulder surgery) will throw a bullpen session Tuesday. … RHP Jharel Cotton (Tommy John surgery) remains in extended spring training and could work three innings in his next appearance.
UP NEXT
A’s: Wrap up a nine-game road trip Sunday when they send Frankie Montas (4-2, 2.97 ERA) to the hill. Montas allowed seven runs in 4 1/3 innings in a loss to Boston last Monday.
Pirates: Jordan Lyles (2-1, 2.42) lasted just four innings in his previous start, when he gave up two runs on three hits with four walks and five strikeouts in a no-decision against Texas.
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Phegley drives in 8, A’s rip Pirates 14-1 to end 6-game skid
By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Oakland Athletics have been playing baseball for nearly 120 years. No catcher in team history has ever put together a game quite like the one Josh Phegley did in a 14-1 romp over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.
Five at-bats. Four hits. Two doubles. A single. All capped off by a long solo shot to left field in the ninth that served as the finishing touch on an eight-RBI performance as the A’s emphatically snapped a six-game losing streak.
Phegley’s eight RBIs set a single-game record for an Oakland catcher and marked the first time any A’s player reached eight in a game Eric Chavez did it on Aug. 30, 2001, against Baltimore.
“Really fun baseball,” Phegley said after his season RBI total jumped from 13 to 21. “I feel like you can’t do something like that if the guys in front of you aren’t getting on base. I’ve had games where I’ve had three, four hits but never with that many guys on. The timing was good. We needed a win and everyone pretty much exploded offensively.”
Oakland set season highs in both runs and hits (16) to win for just the fifth time in 18 games away from O.Co Coliseum and nearly match its entire 15-run total during a skid the dropped the A’s to last in the American League West. Even pitcher Brett Anderson (4-2) got in on the act. He singled twice in addition to allowing just one run in six innings to pick up his first victory since April 9.
“Running bases is still terrifying,” Anderson said. “Especially the first one when I had to go to second. I blacked out basically. But I’ll take the two hits.”
The A’s certainly needed them. Oakland came in hitting just .205 over their last 14 games to extend their wildly uneven start before jumping on Pittsburgh’s Joe Musgrove (1-3) early and then continuing to add on against four relievers.
“I feel like everyone was firing and that’s kind of what we’re used to and what we expect out of ourselves,” Phegley said.
Pittsburgh rookie left fielder Bryan Reynolds singled to extend his hitting streak to 10 games, the second-longest by a Pirate to start his career since 1901, trailing only an 11-game streak by Gregory Polanco in 2014. It wasn’t nearly enough on a night the A’s used a rare visit to Pittsburgh to end a seven-game road losing streak.
MUSGROVE MISFIRES
Musgrove hadn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his first five starts — all of which lasted at least six innings — but didn’t make it out of the third. Some sloppy defense behind him didn’t help. Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang had a pair of errors during a four-run outburst in the second highlighted by Phegley’s three-run double. Oakland tacked on two more in the third, with Musgrove exiting after walking in a run that pushed Oakland’s advantage to 7-2.
“We did not play good defense,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “That’s all I got. At the end of the day, we didn’t handle the ball really well.”
Musgrove was charged with five earned runs on six hits over 2 2/3 innings as his ERA jumped from 1.54 to 2.63. Reliever Nick Kingham fared no better, allowing four runs in 2 1/3, three of the runs coming home on a rope to the left-field wall by Phegley in the fourth that pushed his RBI total to seven.
Phegley wasn’t done. He sent Richard Rodriguez’s pitch to the deserted bleachers in left field in the ninth for his fourth home run to become the first Pittsburgh opponent to knock in eight runs against the Pirates since Ken Reitz did it for the St. Louis Cardinals on June 28, 1977.
Asked what could be done to neutralize Phegley, Musgrove shrugged.
“Not much,” Musgrove said. “He hit good pitches. He had a good night tonight. He saw everyone pretty well, swung the bat well. I don’t think there’s anything we need to do different or need to panic.”
SKYE’S ZONE
Oakland outfield prospect Skye Bolt made his major league debut in the seventh when he popped out to first as a pinch hitter. He remained in the game in center field and later struck out in the ninth. The fourth-round pick in the 2015 draft — named by his father Mike because the elder Bolt wanted to give his son a name that “popped” — joined the A’s after hitting .325 with six home runs for Triple-A Las Vegas.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: C Jose Osuna (neck) was recalled from his rehabilitation assignment, reinstated from the 10-day injured list and assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. …
UP NEXT
A’s: Chris Bassitt (1-0, 0.75 ERA) has allowed one run over 12 innings in his first two starts.
Pirates: Trevor Williams (1-1, 3.38) takes the mound Saturday looking to rebound after giving up five in six innings in a no decision against the Dodgers last weekend.
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