Pittsburgh Pirates star in “Family Matters” parody

Pittsburgh Pirates leftfielder Starling Marte helped keep Saturday’s game against the San Francisco Giants scoreless by robbing Brandon Crawford of a home run in the second inning.

“He was fantastic tonight”, Neil Walker said of Morton not long after backing him up with a two-run homer in the sixth. “Anything productive”, said Bumgarner, whose second-inning two-run blast off Jeff Locke proved to be the decisive blow.

“That homer he hit was loud”, Byrd said.

“The command wasn’t almost as good as I would like, nevertheless it definitely was ok to compete and attempt to make pitches”, Bumgarner stated.

Talking of robust, Bumgarner acquired into the act with the bat, too.

Ben Paulsen singled in the seventh to drive in the tiebreaking run and Jose Reyes added three hits, including an RBI double. Bumgarner wasn’t quite as dominant this time around, getting touched for runs in the first two innings alone. Buster Posey is 5 for 11 against Liriano, while Byrd is 5 for 13. The 37-year-old outfielder is with his 10th team. Every morning at 9 AM, one of us will give you our random thoughts on the goings-on around the Pirates’ organization, and we’ll throw out a few links to some good Pirates-related items from around the web.

In a one-game playoff at PNC Park, the Pirates’ starter should be … I expect another hard played game with little scoring, which is why I’m siding with the under.

“I’m just trying to be aggressive”. The left-hander yielded six runs and 11 hits to San Francisco. He singled in the third on a fastball up and in and hit a fastball down and in for a double in the fifth. On a 1-2 count, Byrd demonstrated the power that the Giants got their paws on with a home run off a low and inside curveball.

Does Bumgarner homering even surprise manager Bruce Bochy anymore?

Having scored zero runs in their last game, the Giants are going to have to up their game if they want to win this matchup. Though Bumgarner worked his way out of the inning in relatively good condition, he was undoubtedly frustrated with himself for giving up the quick run.

“We had a couple push situations on him early”, Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “Especially this time of year”.

Now, you can certainly say that Marte was the MVP for the Pirates in this win. The 27-year-old has pitched well against Pittsburgh this year, going 2-0 with a 2.18 ERA in three matchups.

The Giants also got three hits from Nori Aoki in his return to the leadoff spot.

San Francisco starting pitcher Jake Peavey throws against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning of a baseball game, Thursday, August 20, 2015, in Pittsburgh. Daniel Hudson left the bases loaded in the eighth and Brad Ziegler pitched the ninth for his 22nd save. Gerrit Cole takes the hill for Pittsburgh and he’ll face Christopher Heston of the Giants. Cole is 0-3 with a 4.70 ERA in four starts this month, including a 4-1 loss to Arizona on Monday.