Missed pitch is costly to Pirates
Associated Press
Detroit
The Pittsburgh Pirates whiffed their way through another nine innings, but the biggest pitch of the day might have been the one their catcher missed.
With runners on first and second in a tie game in the seventh, reliever Tony Watson’s fastball handcuffed Rod Barajas. The runners moved up a base, Pittsburgh had to bring the infield in, and Detroit’s Alex Avila hit a two-run single up the middle, sending the Tigers to a 4-3 victory Sunday.
“They had a runner on second, so I went out to the mound and changed the signs, and then I called that pitch with the old signs,” Barajas said. “Watty threw exactly what I called, but I thought I had called for a slider and I had actually called for a fastball. That’s entirely on me.”
Max Scherzer (3-3) struck out 15 — the most by a Detroit pitcher in 40 years. He threw 115 pitches in seven innings and was done for the day when the Tigers came back from a 2-1 deficit while he was still the pitcher of record. Detroit scored three in the seventh, and Avila’s single made it 4-2.
Pittsburgh struck out 17 times in the game and 41 times in the three-game series.
Detroit was without center fielder Austin Jackson (abdominal strain) and closer Jose Valverde (lower back strain), but the Tigers ended up taking two of three from Pittsburgh.
Scherzer and Justin Verlander bookended the series with brilliant pitching performances. Verlander threw a one-hit shutout Friday night, striking out 12 and giving up only a ninth-inning single to Josh Harrison.
“We’re walking out of this series thinking we could have won two, but we also ran into two very good pitchers that were as good as I’ve ever seen them, and I’ve seen quite a bit of them,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Pittsburgh scored a run in the ninth off Joaquin Benoit, but he held on for his first save this season.
Kevin Correia (1-5) allowed three runs and four hits in six-plus innings.
Scherzer’s 15 strikeouts were the most by a major league pitcher this year. Miami’s Anibal Sanchez had 14 against Arizona on April 28.
Scherzer was locked in from the start, throwing his first 10 pitches for strikes before finally missing the zone against Pedro Alvarez, the first hitter of the second. Scherzer got Alvarez anyway for his third strikeout of the day.
All 15 of Scherzer’s strikeouts were swinging. The only other pitcher since 1988 to strike out at least 15 — all swinging — in a game was Houston’s Mike Scott, who fanned 15 Cincinnati Reds on June 8, 1990, according to STATS LLC.