Pirates get the best of Reed, D-backs, clinch series win: By the Numbers

The Arizona Diamondbacks once again had trouble converting baserunners into runs as they hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

Rubby De La Rosa started on the mound for the D-backs, giving up four hits — including three doubles — and a run in his first four innings. He was pretty much brilliant after that, retired his last 10 batters faced before exiting after seven innings.

The D-backs were tied at that point, and they later got runners on first and second with no outs in the eighth inning. Both runners even advanced to second and third with one out, but reliever Tony Watson got Mark Trumbo to pop out to first and Aaron Hill to go down swinging.

Closer Addison Reed took over for Arizona in the ninth, allowing a two-out double to Neil Walker, his second of the game — and the fourth for the Pirates. Starling Marte then singled Walker home for the go-ahead run, and the Pirates added one more hit before Reed got out of the inning.

Down one, catcher Tuffy Gosewisch singled with one out to put the tying run on base for Arizona. Nick Ahmed came in as a pinch runner, but was caught stealing in his first stolen base attempt of the season. Pittsburgh held on for a 2-1 victory, clinching a series win in the best-of-three matchup.

The two teams will face each other once more — Sunday at 1:10 p.m. — at Chase Field before parting ways.

Reed suffered his first loss of the year, while Watson earned his first win, improving to 1-1. A.J. Burnett started the game for Pittsburgh and went seven innings with five hits, two walks and one earned run allowed while striking out four. He finished the night with a 1.80 ERA, but is still looking for his first win of the season.

Here’s a look at Saturday’s low-scoring game, by the numbers:

0/2

Ahmed has only attempted two stolen bases in his career, and he has been caught both times. The 25-year-old shortstop’s pinch-hit appearance ended his streak of nine straight starts for Arizona. Cliff Pennington got the nod instead, going 1-for-2 with two walks.

0/7

After going hitless in four at-bats with one strikeout, Pirates star Andrew McCutchen is now 0-for-7 with one walk in the first two games of this series. The four-time All-Star’s batting average fell to .175 with his quiet performance Saturday.

1-8

Reed doesn’t usually factor into the decision, but he fell to 1-8 since he joined the D-backs before the start of last season. Prior to coming to the Valley, the right-handed closer had an 8-6 career record. Reed threw a whopping 32 pitches in his lone inning of work Saturday, and his ERA jumped from 2.25 to 3.60.

1/9

The Diamondbacks were just 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position in the loss, and they left eight men on base on the evening. Pittsburgh was 2-for-7 with RISP, leaving behind five baserunners in the win.

3

Gosewisch recorded the D-backs’ lone run batted in of the night — his third of the season — with a two-out single to right that plated Chris Owings. Gosewisch and Owings were the only D-backs batters with two hits on the evening, both finishing 2-for-4. As a team, Arizona collected eight hits, while Pittsburgh ended with seven, including three in the ninth inning.

4

Owings doubled his stolen base total for the season by swiping second base twice in his first two at-bats Saturday. The 23-year-old infielder now has 14 stolen bases for his career, as opposed to being caught stealing just once. Center fielder A.J. Pollock (1-for-4 Saturday) also had a swiped bag for the D-backs, his third of the year.

5 (part I)

The one-run offensive performance was the Diamondbacks’ fifth of the season — and the second straight in this series against Pittsburgh. Unsurprisingly, Arizona is 0-5 when scoring just one run this year. In fact, of the D-backs’ eight wins this season, not a single one has come with fewer than four runs.

5 (part II)

Owings’ two singles came in his first two at-bats, and he is now on a five-game hitting streak. His batting average has climbed from .135 before the streak to .241 after his latest performance. Unfortunately, in the only two times he failed to get on base Saturday, he grounded into a double play in the sixth and fouled out to first while leading off the ninth.

8

De La Rosa tied his career high by striking out eight Pirates batters Saturday. He came in with a 2-1 record, but wasn’t able to add a win, despite allowing only four hits, one earned run and no walks in 98 pitches. The first-year Diamondback entered the game with a 6.00 ERA, but he brought that down to 4.68 with his longest outing with his new team.

Well done, Rubby. 👏

Final line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K (ties career high) pic.twitter.com/Law0cL7Xdy

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 26, 2015

11

Since homering in San Francisco on April 18, outfielder David Peralta is hitless in his last 11 at-bats. The left-handed hitter went 0-for-3 Saturday with a strikeout — his batting average falling to .211 — before Trumbo replaced him as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning. Infielder Aaron Hill was also on a fairly long hitless streak — nine at-bats — before he singled in his third plate appearance Saturday. Hill finished the game 1-for-4 and is now batting .163.

254

Brad Ziegler’s brilliant work in the eighth inning marked his 254 appearance with the Diamondbacks, a new franchise record — beating out pitcher Jose Valverde’s 253. The 35-year-old Ziegler only threw 13 pitches in the inning and struck out one while not allowing a run or a hit.

April 15

The Diamondbacks fell to 8-9 with the loss, their first time under .500 since Wednesday, April 15, when they lost to San Diego for the second straight time and stood at 4-5; that day also marked the last time before Saturday the D-backs lost two games in a row.

38,859

The Diamondbacks welcomed a crowd of 38,859 to Chase Field in the second of the three-game series. That number was up from the 37,636 fans who attended Arizona’s only other Saturday home game so far this season — April 11 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a 6-0 D-backs win.