Andrew McCutchen homers twice, carries Pirates to 5-2 victory over Rockies

Despite another strong start from Tyler Chatwood on the road, the Rockies offense and bullpen came up short as the Rockies lost 5-2.

Chatwood was on his game early, throwing three scoreless frames to start the game. He nearly got through the fourth inning unscathed, but Andrew McCutchen got a hold of a pitch and launched it over the left-center field fence to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Carlos Gonzalez and Ian Desmond were retired to begin the fifth, but Trevor Story showed some patience and drew a two-out walk. With Tony Wolters at the plate, Story took off for second base on the pitch and Wolters blooped a single into shallow left-center field. With there being little-to-no offense to this point, third-base coach Stu Cole decided to get aggressive and send Story home. This decision surprised left fielder Adam Frazier, who softly tossed the ball into the infield to Jordy Mercer, who then fired the ball to the plate, just missing Story.

Chatwood pitched six strong innings, departing with a 1-1 tie. He allowed six hits while walking one and striking out five.

Cole countered with a similar line, as he went seven innings while allowing just one run. He gave up three hits while walking three and striking out three.

Adam Ottavino came on to pitch the seventh inning with the intention of keeping the game tied, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Jordy Mercer singled to left field, and John Jaso hit a pinch-hit two run bomb to center field, giving the Pirates a 3-1 lead.

Somewhat predictably, Jordan Lyles made the deficit even larger in the bottom of the eighth. McCutchen launched another home run, this time with a runner on base, to give the Pirates a four-run lead.

Heading into tonight’s game, McCutchen had a career .292/.390/.477 slash line with six homers against the Rockies in 50 games.

The Rockies managed to scrap up a run in the ninth on an RBI single from Story, but Felipe Rivero shut the door to give the Pirates a 5-2 victory.

Tomorrow’s game is the finale of this three game set, starting at 5:05 MT.