Pirates' bats quiet again as skid reaches 5 with loss to Greinke, D'backs

Arizona Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke sliced a line drive into the right-field corner Thursday and legged out a triple as the ball rolled to the Clemente Wall.

That one extra-base hit, his first career triple, was more than he allowed all afternoon.

The Pittsburgh Pirates managed two singles in seven innings against Greinke and had only four balls leave the infield against the dominant right-hander in a quiet 5-0 loss at PNC Park.

The Pirates finished with just five hits — all singles.

The loss completed a four-game series sweep for the Diamondbacks (15-11) and extended the Pirates’ season-long losing streak to five. The game, which drew 9,365, started with a 31-minute rain delay.

It also was the 10th consecutive victory by the Diamondbacks at PNC Park.

“Ever since 2017, the Diamondbacks on the North Shore has been problematic,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “… The game continues to give you good storylines from time to time — interesting stuff that makes you say, huh?

“This is one of them,” he added, “but they played better than us. At the end of the day, they’ve played, they’ve pitched, they’ve hit better than us, and that’s usually what dictates what happens.”

The Pirates (12-11) leave town for a five-game, six-day road trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers.

Greinke (4-1) allowed two hits in seven innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. One of those two hits he allowed was to pitcher Jameson Taillon, who poked a single into right field.

Greinke threw 105 pitches with 70 strikes.

The Diamondbacks outscored the Pirates, 30-7, in the four-game series. They scored two runs in the first, one in the fourth and two in the fifth Thursday — all against Taillon (1-3).

“You kind of know early on that if you make too many mistakes you’re out of the game,” Taillon said. “Today for instance, it didn’t matter how many we gave up. He was going to roll.”

Taillon allowed five runs on six hits. He was replaced after five innings and 76 pitches against a lineup that had five batters hitting left-handed. He struck out five and hit one batter.

“It was a mixed bag,” said Hurdle, noting Taillon didn’t allow a walk and faced only one three-ball count. “When he missed it was up over the plate and they banged it. The left-handed attack has been problematic the last two days.”

Left-handed leadoff hitter Jarrod Dyson went 3 for 5 with two runs and an RBI. The Diamondbacks had nine hits, including six extra-base hits. They rank second in the National League in runs scored, behind only the Dodgers.

“They’re swinging it well,” Taillon said. “I thought I made a lot of really good pitches today. And the ones I didn’t, they let me know they weren’t good pitches.”

Francisco Liriano, Kyle Crick and Keone Kela combined for four scoreless innings in relief.

The Diamondbacks got to Taillon early with two runs in the first.

Dyson led off with a single and Eduardo Escobar was hit by a pitch two batters later. Christian Walker followed with an RBI double, and Ketel Marte added a run-scoring grounder to lead 2-0.

Walker, who went 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI, doubled and scored in the fourth.

In the fifth, Greinke and Dyson hit consecutive triples into the right-field corner, scoring Greinke. Dyson later scored on Escobar’s sacrifice fly to lead 5-0.

“Right now they’re playing as a complete team,” Taillon said. “They might not have the huge names that you’re used to seeing in some really good lineups. But top to bottom, they’re a really competitive team.”