Marte’s single lifts Pirates over Diamondbacks

Associated Press

PHOENIX

Starling Marte singled home Neil Walker with two outs in the ninth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates edged the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1 on Saturday night.

Walker doubled to the center-field wall against Addison Reed (0-1), his second double of the game, before Marte hit a grounder past diving shortstop Cliff Pennington.

Tony Watson (1-1) pitched out of trouble in the eighth to earn the win. Mark Melancon worked the ninth for his fifth save.

Watson gave up consecutive singles to start the eighth and Paul Goldschmidt followed with a soft bouncer to third for the first out, advancing the runners. But pinch-hitter Mark Trumbo fouled out and Watson whiffed Aaron Hill to escape the jam.

Each team’s starter dominated over the first seven innings.

Pittsburgh right-hander A.J. Burnett scattered five hits, walked two and struck out four. Burnett has allowed one run in each of his past three starts and five earned runs total over 25 innings for a 1.80 ERA.

On the other side, Rubby De La Rosa yielded four hits and matched a career high with eight strikeouts. The right-hander did not walk a batter.

The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the second with a two-out rally. Chris Owings singled, stole second and scored on a single by Tuffy Gosewisch.

Pennington bunted toward third base against an exaggerated shift to the right side for an easy single, but Burnett struck out De La Rosa to end the inning.

UP NEXT

Pirates: LHP Francisco Liriano (0-1) makes his fourth start of the season today. Liriano has started twice previously against Arizona, once last season for Pittsburgh and once for the Minnesota Twins.

Diamondbacks: RHP Jeremy Hellickson (1-2) is coming off his first win for Arizona last Sunday against San Francisco. Hellickson has yet to face Pittsburgh but has held a trio of Pirates batters — Corey Hart, Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart — hitless in seven at-bats.