Bucs’ sacrifices compound woes for sloppy Marlins

Shawn Chacon tossed five shutout innings of relief in the Pirates’ 7-2 victory.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates used four sacrifice flies and took advantage of five Florida Marlins errors in a sloppily-played 7-2 win Thursday night.

Ronny Paulino had three RBIs and Shawn Chacon pitched five shutout innings out of the bullpen for the Pirates, who earned a split of the four-game series.

The Pirates, who committed two errors, tied a club record set Sept. 9, 1988, against Philadelphia with four sacrifice flies. The Marlins tied a club record for errors.

Hanley Ramirez and Jeremy Hermida each had two hits for Florida, which had a two-game winning streak snapped and had not committed five errors in a game since July 25, 2000. It was the third time the Marlins had committed five errors in a game.

Three unearned runs

Paulino, Chris Duffy, Jose Castillo and Jason Bay had sacrifice flies for the Pirates.

Four of Florida’s errors occurred in the first four innings — leading to three unearned runs for Pittsburgh.

The first came in the second inning off Florida starter Ricky Nolasco when Bay reached on a Miguel Cabrera error and scored on Paulino’s sacrifice fly.

That came after Florida scored a run in the first on a single, two walks and a hit batter.

Pittsburgh starter Tony Armas walked Hermida with the bases loaded to score Dan Uggla.

After Cabrera’s RBI double in the third scored Ramirez to make it 2-1, Armas was pulled for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the inning. He allowed two runs on three hits with three walks and a hit batter in three innings.

On the line

Pirates manager Jim Tracy said earlier in the week that Armas’ spot in the rotation was on the line in this outing. His ERA dropped from 8.76 to 8.46.

Chacon (1-0) took over for Pittsburgh, and the Pirates scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Two of those were unearned as a result of three Florida errors — two of which were charged to shortstop Ramirez during one play.

Pittsburgh loaded the bases without a hit, and Paulino singled home Adam LaRoche and Bay. Castillo followed with a sacrifice fly to score Ryan Doumit.

Nolasco (1-2) allowed four hits and three walks while striking out one in five innings.

The Pirates added two more in the seventh on Freddy Sanchez’s RBI double and Bay’s sacrifice fly.

Chacon allowed only two hits and no walks in working the third through eighth innings. He needed 70 pitches — seven less than Armas threw in his three innings. Chacon is a candidate to replace Armas in the rotation.