PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - 36 players were used Thursday night. 26 combined hits, 4 combined errors and the Miami Marlins rally from an early four run deficit to defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-7 to take two of the three games of this series.
It was a wild first inning Thursday night at PNC Park as the Marlins got on the board first on an RBI single by Neil Walker, but the Pirates answered right back in the bottom half of the inning.
Kevin Newman led off with a single followed by a Bryan Reynolds' two-run home run on the first pitch of his at-bat to put the Pirates in front 2-1. Colin Moran then doubled, Josh Bell singled and after a Melky Cabrera fly out to right field, Pablo Reyes brought home Moran with an RBI double while Bell was thrown out on the play at home on a perfect throw from shallow left field.
Then craziness ensued after that in the inning as Adam Frazier than walked, Elias Diaz was hit by a pitch and Dario Agrazal hit a routine dribbler to second base with the bases loaded that should have ended the inning, but Marlins second baseman Isan Diaz threw the ball into the dugout and Reyes and Frazier would score on the play as a result and the Pirates would take a 5-1 lead into the second inning.
Harold Ramirez would lead off with a solo home run in the top of the second to cut the Pirates lead to 5-2.
The match-up everyone was waiting to see happen this series finally happened in the 4th inning when the Marlins brought in Brian Moran, Colin Moran's brother, for his major league debut and after getting Reynolds to groundout to shortstop, he struck out his brother looking with a breaking ball at the bottom part of the zone.
The Pirates would get the strike them out, throw them out when Feliz struck out the next batter and on the throw down to second, Isan Diaz tried to score from third, but Newman got the ball back to Diaz in time, but the Marlins would take the 6-5 lead heading to the bottom of the fifth.
The Marlins would add two more runs in the sixth and two more in the eighth before the Pirates would cut into their lead with two solo home runs by Bryan Reynolds and Josh Bell in the bottom of the ninth.
In the race for the batting title, Bryan Reynolds went 2 for 5 Thursday night with two home runs and his batting average is now .333, which has him in second place in the National League behind Anthony Rendon of the Washington Nationals and his .338 batting average.
Reynolds became the third Pirates player to hit a home run from both sides of the plate in the same game, joining Bobby Bonilla and Dale Sveum.