Pirates Bats Silenced in Home Opener

After returning from a successful road trip in which the Pirates posted back-to-back road series wins for the first time since August 2007, they played host to the Colorado Rockies this afternoon at PNC Park. Today, however, was an opening day that most Pirate hitters would like to forget about.




After falling behind 2-0 early in the top half of the first the Pirates battled back in their half of the inning to cut the lead down to one with contributions from Jose Tabata and Neil Walker. After their back-to-back singles and a fielder’s choice by Andrew McCutchen that drove in Tabata, base hits would be hard to come by for the Pirates.



Colorado starting pitcher Esmil Rodgers was the story of the day as he proved to be very impressive in his 7.1 innings of work, striking out seven and only surrendering one earned run. His delivery, reminiscent to Colorado ace Ubaldo Jiménez, had Pirate hitters guessing and off-balance all day. They simply could not square up the ball and make good contact. After two singles in the Pittsburgh 1st it would be another seven innings before they accumulated another hit, that coming off the bat of Ronny Cedeno in the 8th!



Granted, the Pirates were not lighting up the scoreboard against Chicago or St. Louis in the previous two series, but one would think that coming home with such great momentum would lead them on to a productive home opener at PNC Park. The Pirates cannot afford to have extended hitting droughts if they plan on turning the franchise around. There will be days when nothing seems to go right. Let’s just hope it was one of those days today. Whether it be home opener jitters or just a great pitching performance by the opponent, Pirate hitters will have to make adjustments quickly as they are back at it tomorrow against Colorado.

by Shane McFarland