Correia, Pirates' Offense Shaky in Loss To Yankees Under The Lights

Photo Credit:  BuccosBuzz.com

The Pirates faced off against the New York Yankees tonight under the lights in Tampa, Florida.  The two teams met earlier in the month with the Buccos coming away with a 2-0 victory.  Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, two runs would not be enough as the Bronx Bombers won tonight’s contest, 4-2.

The Pirates sent Kevin Correia to the mount, while the Yankees countered with starter Bartolo Colon. 

Colon got off to a fast start in the first inning by striking out the first three Pirates he faced.  The Yankees’ bats would give them a 1-0 early lead in the bottom part of the inning when Russell Martin hit a solo home run to left field.  However, in the top of the second frame, Pittsburgh responded by scoring a pair of runs.  Steve Pearce hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Matt Diaz.  The next Batter, Chris Snyder, singled to center field, scoring Garrett Jones from third base.

The Pirates maintained the lead until the bottom of the third.  Derek Jeter led off with a triple, and would score two batters later when Alex Rodriguez singled to right field.  Robinson Cano then smashed an RBI single to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

Correia and Colon would both go four innings and be the pitchers of record for their teams.  Correia’s final line looked like this:  three runs on six hits, three walks and four strikeouts.  Colon finished with two runs on four hits with an impressive seven strikeouts.

The final run of the night would come on Andruw Jones’ solo homerun to right center field in the fifth inning off Charlie Morton.  The Pirates’ right hander threw three innings total, allowing the one run on two hits while recording a pair of strikeouts.  The only other pitcher for the Bucs was Jose Veras, who pitched the eighth inning, allowing a pair of hits.

Overall, this was another shaky game for the Pirates.  Correia did not perform well in four innings of work, while Morton didn’t fair too poorly as he looks to lock up the fifth spot in the rotation.  The Bucco bats were not out tonight.  Even though they collected nine hits, only two of them were for extra bases and they struck out an astounding sixteen times.

The Pirates will face the Yankees one more time in Spring Training play, which will take place back in Tampa Bay on March 26.  The Pirates will be back in Bradenton tomorrow for a game under the lights against the Baltimore Orioles.  After tonight’s loss, the Pirates’ current record in Grapefruit League play is 6-7.

And…

As Always…

Let’s Go Bucs!