Pirates lose quietly to Diamondbacks, 4

Jeremy Hellickson won on the road for the first time in 2 ½ months and Jake Lamb homered to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night. He labored through 6⅔ innings, giving up four runs and nine hits as the Pirates lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-1, before a crowd of 27,365 at PNC Park. He had gone 0-4 with an 8.67 ERA in his previous six road starts since winning May 30 at Milwaukee.

Home venue didn’t help him on April 26 against the Pirates as he surrendered four runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings of an 8-0 loss.

Right fielder David Peralta had two hits for the Diamondbacks, including an RBI double in a two-run first inning.

Daniel Hudson relieved Reed for the 8th inning and worked himself into a jam as pinch hitter Michael Morse and second baseman Neil Walker hit two out singles to set up Alvarez with a chance to tie the game with one big swing of his bat. Brad Ziegler came in to close it out in the 9th and proceeded to give up a walk to Cervelli. “It was a good test for us”.

But a rough patch early doesn’t necessarily translate into a bad outing for Cole as he has often shown the uncanny ability to shake it off, settle in and dominate opposing hitters for the next six or seven innings. Aramis Ramirez and Starling Marte failed to get to a 2-and-2 foul pop-up behind third base, though, and Peralta took advantage, doubling to right to bring home a run. They did get a run in the fifth when Pedro Alvarez hit a 73-MPH curve to deep right.

“He’s had four outings in a row where we haven’t defended the ball very well behind him”, manager Clint Hurdle said.

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game and he has one of the best fastballs”, Lamb said. “We made some mistakes over the plate, they were able to put the barrel on some balls early”.

In the second, Chris Owings doubled off the center-field wall and scored on a bloop single by pitcher Jeremy Hellickson for a 3-0 edge. Delgado gives Arizona an eighth reliever as it is in a stretch of 21 games in 20 days before its next day off on September 3….

Hart was initially placed on the disabled list June 24 retroactive to June 22 with left shoulder impingement. On the season, Delgado is 4-3 with a 2.79 ERA and one save in 41 appearances out of the Arizona bullpen. In his last start, Hellickson pitched eight innings in a win against the Philadelphia Phillies.