Marlins 2 - 4 Pirates
Final
  for this game

Morton, Pirates top Marlins

May 26, 2015 - 3:11 AM Pittsburgh, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Charlie Morton pitched seven quality innings in his season debut and the Pittsburgh Pirates backed him with a pair of home runs in their 4-2 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday.

Morton (1-0) has spent the entire season on the disabled list following offseason hip surgery. After three rehab starts in the minors, Morton joined the big league club and yielded just two runs over seven innings in Pittsburgh's fourth straight win.

"I think I threw the ball well," said Morton. "My sinker was working pretty well. I kept it down and got a lot of groundballs."

Francisco Cervelli and Pedro Alvarez went deep for Pittsburgh, which improved to 9-1 at home against Miami in the last 10 matchups. Morton also improved to 4-0 lifetime against the Marlins.

Giancarlo Stanton, who entered the game in a 3-for-30 slump, had a solo home run and drove in both Miami runs.

Dee Gordon led off the game with an infield single and stole second, leading to Stanton's RBI single.

Pittsburgh answered in the second inning. David Phelps (2-2) retired the first four batters he faced before one-out singles by Neil Walker and Alvarez led to Cervelli's three-run blast to right.

Stanton took Morton out to right field a half-inning later to pull Miami back within one, but the righty settled down after that and limited the Marlins to just three more hits -- all singles -- over the rest of his stint.

Alvarez padded the cushion with a solo homer to left-center in the home sixth.

Phelps was responsible for all four runs on eight hits over six innings.

"I thought Phelps battled," said Marlins manager Dan Jennings.

Tony Watson relieved Morton and pitched around a one-out single in the eighth, and Mark Melancon nailed down his 11th save with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Game Notes

Morton's threw 63 of his 87 pitches for strikes ... Cervelli's home run was his first of the season ... Pittsburgh third baseman Josh Harrison went 0- for-4 to snap an 11-game hit streak ... The Marlins fell to 2-6 under Jennings ... Miami's Martin Prado extended his hit streak against the Pirates to 10 games ... All eight of Miami's starting position players had at least one hit. Only Stanton had two.






Related News