Detroit Tigers defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 to avoid series sweep - MLB Updates
The Detroit Tigers’ starter, Rick Porcello tossed a one-hit eight innings to take his team into a 2-0 shutout win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at the PNC Park, on Sunday night, May 22.
The Detroit manager Jim Leyland was pleased of the performance shown with the ball by the 22-year-old right-hand ball thrower.
Leyland said, "He kept the ball on the ground pretty good. He was pounding the strike zone pretty good. He was fantastic. No question about it, he was fantastic."
Porcello held the Pirates to no-hit until the sixth inning and allowed his first hit to the Pirates’ short-stop Ronny Cedeno, who touched a lead-off double to deep right side of the field. However, Porcello kept his momentum up and finished off his eight
innings spell allowing just two walks and taking out three batters to take his fourth win of the season.
Porcello was lamenting the loss of chance he has to make his first shut-out of career, though he did plead his case to Leyland to stay in the game.
"I was telling him I was good to go and he said, 'No you're not,' and that was that," Porcello said. "It's a losing battle ... I understand it, though. We needed that win bad. Valverde is ready to go and that's why he's there, to close out tight games."
Closer Jose Valverde threw a perfect last inning to secure his eleventh save of the season.
The Pirates’ starter, Paul Maholm gave away an early lead to the Tigers in the bottom of the second inning. Maholm allowed the Tigers’ Casper Wells an RBI single to put his team under a 1-0 deficit. Maholm yielded another run, this time to the Tigers’ Jhonny
Peralta who launched a 390-feet one-run homer to left-field to the take his team into a 2-0 lead.
Besides these runs, Maholm also allowed two walks and six hits over five innings to bear his seventh loss of the season. The right-hand pitcher now has the most losses with a 3.65 ERA in the Majors this season.
Though the Tigers’ relievers Chris Resop, Daniel McCutchen, Jose Ascanio and closer Joe Beimel displayed a strong performance, they were unable to take their team into a winning position because of a lack of runs support by the batters.
"You can say I'm pitching good enough to lose, that's kind of how it's going," Maholm was not happy with the batters and said. "Hopefully it turns around soon."
Pirates turned the game into an interesting position in the ninth inning when Xavier Paul singled and Valverde hit Andrew McCutchen before Ryan Doumit struck out swinging. Then Garret Jones grounded out to second, moving Paul into third and McCutchen to
second before Neil Walker grounded out to second base.
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