Marlins rally late to edge Pirates

Associated Press

MIAMI

Jonathon Niese kept the Pirates within striking distance against Adam Conley and the Miami Marlins before eventually coming up short.

Niese allowed two runs in five innings for the Pirates, who allowed a tiebreaking RBI double to Adeiny Hechavarria in the bottom of the eighth in a 3-2 loss to the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

“I thought he pitched a very good game,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “A solid effort.”

Niese had a different take on his outing.

“Any time I go five or less it’s not good,” Niese said. “I want to go six or more. Realistically, I want to go seven. Any less than that is not a quality outing.”

The Marlins opened the scoring in the fifth when J.T. Realmuto reached on a double and scored on a ground ball by Christian Yelich to first baseman John Jaso, whose throw home was late.

A wild pitch by Niese gave the Marlins a 2-0 lead.

“That fifth inning snowballed and a lot of things didn’t go our way,” Niese said.

Pittsburgh’s Matt Joyce tied the score with a two-run single in the seventh.

Marlins’ closer A.J. Ramos walked Francisco Cervelli to begin the ninth, but got the next three batters out to convert his 26th consecutive save dating back to last season.

Hechavarria was unable to give the Marlins an early lead, but he delivered when it mattered most.

“I was thinking about my previous at-bats in the game and how I wasn’t able to come through for the team especially with bases loaded in my first at-bat,” Hechavarria said. “I just wanted [Derek] Dietrich to get on base in any way. ... I just wanted to come up again and help the team.”

Pittsburgh’s Tony Watson (1-1) hit Derek Dietrich with a pitch with two outs in the eighth. Pinch-runner Miguel Rojas scored on Hechavarria’s double to left-center field that bounced once before hitting the wall.

“Hechy battles and fouls some balls off and then finally got something he could hit in fair territory,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Obviously a huge hit for us at that point.”

Hechavarria bounced into a fielder’s choice in the second inning with the bases loaded and nobody out.

Miami starter Adam Conley took a no-hitter into the sixth until Andrew McCutchen singled to center and tied a career-high with nine strikeouts in six scoreless innings.

“Pretty good,” Mattingly said. “I thought he drove the ball in better tonight. His stuff held, he kept everything together, and just attacked all night.”

David Phelps (4-3) pitched 12/3 scoreless innings in relief for the win and A.J. Ramos got the last three outs for his 17th save.

“It’s what good teams do, they find ways to win games like that when you may have one aspect that kind of struggles and another part picks them up,” Phelps said. “That’s what we’ve been doing all year.”