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 A night before, Polanco's triple with two outs in the eighth inning
gave the Pirates a 3-2 win.
"Polanco is starting to spark. We're starting to see what we know he
can do," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Polanco is enjoying his new opportunity to contribute. After a
stretch of four consecutive hitless games, the rookie right fielder
had been moved down in the batting order, but an injury to the
Pirates leadoff hitter Josh Harrison put Polanco back atop the
order.
Polanco's late-inning heroics extended streaks for both teams as
Pittsburgh won its fifth straight and San Diego lost its fifth in a
row. It was also Pittsburgh's 22nd come-from-behind win of the
season.
"Losing again, we've not executed offensively at the end," San Diego
acting manager Pat Murphy said. "You think things are going well and
they come up with every big hit. In the eighth inning, they had four
runs on the board and they had one left on base. That's unusual.
"That's a credit to them and the game they played and how clutch
they were."
The clutch part wasn't lost in the Pirates' clubhouse. It was their
22nd come-from-behind victory and their fourth straight win.
"I think it's part of our resiliency," said Pirates second baseman
Neil Walker, who scored two runs. "With good pitching and good
defense, we know that a couple of hits or a walk and we're right
back in it.
"(Andrew) Cashner was really good, but Charlie (Morton) gave us an
opportunity."
Padres starter Andrew Cashner was in control through six innings,
allowing just one hit as San Diego clung to a 2-1 lead.
"I thought the whole night I made pitches," Cashner said. "For the
whole night, my sinker was down. I threw a mistake to Walker, but
the whole night I just made pitches.
"I think we've actually -- the numbers don't show it -- this road
trip we've played, in my opinion, the best baseball we've played all
season."
Still, Pittsburgh broke through in the seventh to tie the score
after second baseman Neil Walker led off with a double, advanced to
third on third baseman Jung Ho Kang's fly ball and scored on catcher
Francisco Cervelli's groundout.
After Polanco put the Pirates ahead, Pittsburgh added to the lead
when center fielder Andrew McCutchen drove home Polanco as he
extended his career-high hitting streak to 15 games. Kang followed
with a single that scored Walker.
Antonio Bastardo pitched a scoreless ninth for the Pirates for his
first save of the year. He preserved the win for Deolis Guerra, a
26-year-old rookie who has not been scored upon since May 25 when he
was pitching for Triple-A Indianapolis.
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The Padres had wasted no time getting on the board. Right fielder
Matt Kemp sent Morton's 1-2 pitch over the center field fence into
PNC Park's shrubbery with two outs in the top of the first inning.
San Diego doubled its lead in the second when left fielder Will
Venable walked with one out and scored on center fielder Melvin
Upton Jr.'s double to the base of the wall in center.
In the final seven innings, though, the Padres had just two hits.
"Cashner was virtually unhittable for seven innings," said Ishakawa,
who scored the go-ahead run. "But Charlie did an unbelievable job
keeping us in the game."
The Pirates cut the lead in half in the bottom of the second when
Kang hit a sharp grounder up the middle that glanced off shortstop
Alexi Amarista into short center field that Kang legged into a
double. He advanced to third on Cervelli's grounder to third and
scored standing up on a fly to left field by first baseman Pedro
Alvarez.
NOTES: Pirates LF Starling Marte was not in the starting lineup for
the third straight game. He left Sunday with discomfort in his left
side. Sean Rodriguez made his third straight start in left field
after starting there just twice in the first 81 games. ... The game
ended the second leg of a three-city, 10-game trip for the Padres.
Coupled with the All-Star break, San Diego will have a 16-game gap
between home games. ... The Pirates' win Tuesday night ended San
Diego's domination in Pittsburgh. San Diego had won 14 straight
series in Pittsburgh since 2000. That was the third-longest road
series winning streak in history and the longest since 1913, when
the Pirates won 13 straight against the Boston Braves. ... After the
rain caused an early exit by San Diego's Tyson Ross and forced the
bullpen to pitch six innings Tuesday, the Padres were looking for a
return to form by the pitching staff and they got it. The Padres had
been fourth in the league with 53 quality starts, but it was the
Pirates who received their 56th quality start of the season.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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