Pirates hold on vs. Rangers

Closer Vasquez gets revenge for Gallo homer

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Felipe Vazquez doesn’t let his failures linger. That wouldn’t help the Pittsburgh Pirates closer be any good at his job. Still, he wanted another shot at Texas slugger Joey Gallo. Getting touched for a 467-foot home run will do that.

So when setup man Kyle Crick hit a batter with two outs in the eighth on Tuesday night and the Pirates nursing a one-run lead, Vazquez knew if everything went right, he’d see Gallo as the last man up.

The outcome this time was different. Far different. Three pitches. Three strikes. The last two both clocked at 101 mph, followed by a fist pump, a smile and the obligatory jab to catcher Francisco Cervelli’s chest in celebration after the Pirates escaped with a 5-4 win.

“My turn,” Vazquez said after picking up his 10th save. “He got me once. He’s not going to get me twice. I knew as soon as Crick hit that guy, I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I wanted him to be up for sure. I wanted to get a little revenge in here.”

Gallo’s moon shot in the 11th last Tuesday didn’t spoil Pittsburgh’s 6-4 win, and the hard-throwing All-Star tried to play it off in the aftermath, tweeting he thought it might go “500 feet.”

“You’ve got to have fun,” Vazquez said. “You cannot get frustrated. At least me. I’m a closer. I can’t get frustrated. I cannot carry all that to my next start.”

Vazquez’s emphatic strikeout ended the only perfect inning for Pittsburgh’s bullpen. The Pirates relied on spot starter Steven Brault and six relievers to win for the fifth time in six games. Brault lasted four innings while filling in for injured Chris Archer. Michael Feliz (1-0) pitched a scoreless fifth and the Pirates survived to improve to 16-5 in their last 21 interleague games.

“It’s a night we were tough enough,” Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. “We had enough pitches.”

POLANCO PRODUCES

Pittsburgh right fielder Gregory Polanco sent a two-run shot to the first row of seats in right-center off Adrian Sampson (0-2) in the fifth, his first since dislocating his left shoulder in an awkward slide last September.

Polanco underwent surgery shortly after mangling his shoulder on Sept. 4. He returned a bit earlier than expected and is still working to rediscover the power that led him to hit a career-high 23 home runs in 2018. He entered Tuesday hitting .250 with one RBI in 10 games and spent the pregame focusing on using his lower body more to compensate for a left shoulder he admitted is still “weak.”

Polanco singled in his first at-bat — before getting caught stealing at second.