Pittsburgh Pirates get after Jon Gray, beat Rockies 9-3

The Pirates got after Jon Gray early as Starling Marte and Aramis Ramirez both jacked solo home runs to give the Pirates an early 2-0 lead. The lead would extend to three in the second inning after Jordy Mercer doubled home Francisco Cervelli.

The Rockies offense would consist of just one hit, a Justin Morneau single, through the first three innings.

The Pirates continued to beat up Gray as they added two more runs in the fourth. With runners on first and third and two outs, Gray was able to strike out Andrew McCutchen to end the inning.

Gray wasn't having issues with walks, but he was consistently leaving the ball in the zone and the Pirates were making him pay for his mistakes. Gray's night was finished after 4 2/3 innings. He allowed nine hits, two of which were home runs, and allowed a total of five earned runs. He struck out five and walked just one batter.

Justin Morneau and Corey Dickerson both singled in the fifth to set up a three-run bomb off the bat of Tom Murphy to bring the score to 5-3. Charlie Blackmon was hit by a pitch and eventually made his way to third base after back-to-back successful steals. Blackmon is the first Rockie since Willy Taveras to have 40 stolen bases in a season. The Rockies loaded the bases for Nolan Arenado, who struck out to end the inning.

Simon Castro, Rex Brothers, and Scott Oberg all recorded an out in the sixth, but surrendered a run on a Starling Marte RBI double to center field. The Pirates were back out to a three-run lead.

The Rockies managed to load the bases in the bottom of the six for Charlie Blackmon, but Antonio Bastardo was able to get Blackmon to line out to right field.

Jason Gurka came on in relief and provided two solid innings, allowing no hits and striking out one.

Brooks Brown came on in the ninth and was knocked around for three runs on four hits and a walk as the Pirates extended their lead to 9-3

Bobby LaFromboise and Arquimedes Caminero closed things out to seal the Pirates victory.

The Rockies face the Pirates tomorrow night at 6:40 pm MST.

Source: FanGraphs