Rich Hill tossed six scoreless innings, Austin Hedges drove in three runs and the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates cruised to an 8-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday afternoon.
Hill (4-3) allowed just an infield hit to Matt Vierling and two walks while striking out seven. The Pirates used three relievers to finish off the one-hit shutout.
Rodolfo Castro homered and drove in two runs, and Bryan Reynolds contributed three hits and scored twice. Andrew McCutchen and Connor Joe each added two hits, a run and an RBI. Pittsburgh won for just the third time in 15 games.
Detroit manager A.J. Hinch was ejected by plate umpire Nic Lentz for arguing balls and strikes during the fourth inning. The ejection came after Eric Haase struck out looking.
Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez (4-3), who had allowed just two runs in his previous six starts, gave up four runs and six hits in five innings.
Pittsburgh took a 2-0 lead in the second. Joe led off with a single and Castro walked. After a fielder’s choice and a strikeout, Hedges hit a long fly ball to right center. It glanced off center fielder Vierling’s glove as both runners scored.
That ended a streak of 21 consecutive scoreless innings by Rodriguez.
After giving up a leadoff single to Vierling in the first, Hill recorded five consecutive strikeouts. Detroit didn’t have another baserunner until Vierling walked with two out in the third.
Pittsburgh made it 3-0 in the fourth. With one out, Castro ripped a 1-1 Rodriguez pitch over the left field fence for his fifth homer.
The Pirates tacked on another run in the fifth. Reynolds bounced a two-out double just inside the first base bag. McCutchen followed with a single to left to bring him home.
Pittsburgh blew the game open with a four-run seventh against Tyler Alexander and Jose Cisnero.
Reynolds singled and McCutchen reached on an error by second baseman Jonathan Schoop. Carlos Santana smacked a run-scoring double before Joe and Castro supplied RBI singles. Hedges added a two-out RBI single.
–Field Level Media
