Mark Melancon: Melancon blows the save but Pirates win in 15

Pedro Alvarez accounted for the Pirates’ lone run with his 19th homer in the fifth inning.

Hellickson became sick to his stomach on Sunday night but was able to pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing only one run, on Monday night to beat the Pirates.

Like Cole, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle does not believe fatigue is a factor.

It was enough as Melancon bounced back after blowing his first save in more than three months.

“It was exciting”, Florimon said with a smile. “I’m glad you helped us win that game”.

Snider hit. 264 with 13 home runs last season for the Pirates.

Hessler was in his second inning of work. “Very frustrating but it’s just the way it worked out”. Ray has dropped four straight decisions since beating Texas on July 7 even though he hasn’t allowed more than four earned runs in any of his last six starts. The Diamondbacks did all three of these preciously mentioned factors in combination better than the Pirates and came away with the win. Rodriguez entered the game an inning earlier as a defensive replacement for Pedro Alvarez.

Kang made an error on Ender Inciarte’s grounder to start the ninth. Sean Rodriguez, at first base, couldn’t handle Goldschmidt’s grounder – he was charged with an error on the play – but Polanco fumbled the ball in right. Mark Melancon recovered to strike out Jake Lamb and get a pop-out from A.J. Pollock, but Hill singled to bring up Goldschmidt.

“It shows what type of pitcher he is, especially here as hot and humid as it is”, said Diamondbacks reliever Addison Reed, who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning to protect the 4-1 lead. 300 (3-for-10) with two runs scored, one double and one RBI. After slogging through a 30-pitch first inning, the right-hander retired 16 of his last 17 hitters, allowing only a leadoff double by shortstop Jhonny Peralta in the fourth. Patrick Corbin (3-3, 3.43 ERA) gets the start.

“From the conversations I’ve had with Gerrit there has been on indication that he is exhausted”, Hurdle said. “Our guys are good at that”. In his only career start against Pittsburgh, he gave up four runs in 4 2/3 innings on April 26.

Anderson’s ERA jumped to 4.51 and his record is 5-5 for the season. The Pirates are one of the best in the NL in terms of hits with a phenomenal 9.1 per game. The Pirates would get even in the bottom of the second before taking the lead in the third off of a Starling Marte solo homer, his 14th of the season. Ian Desmond had four RBIs for the Nationals and third baseman Yunel Escobar hit a two-run homer in the first and drove in three runs while scoring four.

Delgado was scheduled to pitch two innings on Tuesday for Mobile, but Arizona manager Chip Hale said the Diamondbacks decided to activate him sooner.

The Pittsburgh Pirates stepped into the middle game of a three-game set Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park, hoping to get a solid start from pitcher Francisco Liriano, who has not quite been himself lately.