PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - It was a rough night and start to the homestand at PNC Park on Friday night for the Pittsburgh Pirates as the Oakland Athletics defeat the Pirates 14-1.
Pirates Starting Pitcher Joe Musgrove retired the Athletics 1-2-3 in the Top of the 1st and the Pirates jumped out to a 1-0 lead after one inning of play when Adam Frazier came around to score after a leadoff walk. But, it was all Athletics after that as they batted around in the 2nd inning and scored 5 runs.
"We didn't make pitches," said Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle. "The one guy that came in Feliz, (and then) Liriano pitched really well, but one pitch he leaves out over the plate and Chapman bangs it into the seats. But the other guys, Rodriguez was behind in the count 4 out of 7 hitters. Unfortunately, Joe wasn't sharp at the end of the day, Kingham, one inning he was (sharp) and one inning he wasn't. We made too many mistakes over a team that can hit and they have hit and we didn't get the ball where we needed to tonight and they showed us they can hit."
Oakland was led at the plate by their Catcher Josh Phegley who went 4 for 5 with a Double, Home Run and 8 RBI. The 8 Runs Batted In by Phegley were the most batted in against the Pirates by an opponent since 1977 when Ken Reitz of the St. Louis Cardinals achieved it.
The Pirates will send Trevor Williams to the mound Saturday night for Game 2 of the series at PNC Park against Chris Bassitt and the Athletics at 7:05 pm.