05/23/2023 – By Ethan Smith – @mvp_Ethan on Twitter
We knew going into this series that the Texas Rangers have fielded one of the best offense in MLB. Well, Texas proved that on Tuesday night.
The Rangers jumped on Rich Hill immediately, as Marcus Semien would triple, leading to a Corey Seager single that would score Semien. Hill was then called for a balk that would score Seager, making it 2-0 before the Pirates even came to bat.
Pittsburgh would strike back in the bottom of the third as Bryan Reynolds would bring the Pirates within one on a two-out RBI double that scored Andrew McCutchen, who extended his on-base streak to 13 games.
Things were relatively quiet for the middle innings, but the Rangers offense could only be quiet for so long.
Hill pitched well until the sixth, giving up two runs before being removed for Jose Hernandez in an outing that saw nine strikeouts along with five earned runs and seven hits.
Hernandez would allows another run via balk to the Rangers, scoring Josh Jung, who also had a 444 foot homer against Duane Underwood Jr. in the seventh to extend the Rangers lead to 6-1 in the eighth inning.
The final innings didn’t have much to write home about as the Pirates fell in game two of the series to the Rangers 6-1.
Pittsburgh and Texas play the rubber match tomorrow.
News & Notes
- Rich Hill: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
- Jose Hernandez: 1.2 IP, 1 K
- Underwood Jr.: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 K
- McCutchen increase on-base streak to 13-games
- Pirates move to 25-23 and fail to secure series victory in May(possibility tomorrow)
Inside The Bucs Basement 