Pirates lose another extra-inning lead to Marlins, drop 2nd game in a row

The Pittsburgh Pirates had little success with their bats Thursday in a 3-2, 11-inning loss to the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park.

Marlins pitchers allowed only six hits and recorded 16 strikeouts, nearly half of their 33 outs. Worse, pinch hitter Daniel Vogelbach and designated hitter Yoshi Tsutsugo struck out looking in the seventh and 10th innings with runners on third base in a close game.

The result was the second consecutive loss for the Pirates (38-52) after they had won four in a row — their longest winning streak in three seasons under manager Derek Shelton.

While boarding their flight to Denver for three games against the Colorado Rockies — the final series before the All-Star break — the Pirates carried the second-most strikeouts in the National League (839 in 90 games, an average of more than nine per).

Asked specifically about keeping Tsutsugo in the middle of the lineup — he batted cleanup Thursday and ended the game with a .182 batting average and only two home runs in 43 games — Shelton said, “As we continue to run out our lineup, we’ll have to make that decision. We need to get it going.”

Even when the Pirates reached base, they had trouble staying there or coming around to score. Oneil Cruz was caught stealing twice, and Jake Marisnick was tagged out trying to score from third after Kevin Newman walked.

In the seventh, the Pirates were down 1-0 when Marisnick and Cruz singled, putting runners on the corners. After Vogelbach struck out, Cruz was caught trying to steal second base.

“It was my decision,” Shelton said. “We were trying to create something, and it ended up not working out.”

Then, when Newman walked on a 3-2 pitch and the baseball eluded catcher Nick Fortes, Marisnick thought umpire Alex Mackay had signaled strikeout and assumed Fortes would throw to first base. But Fortes found the ball and held it. Marisnick was an easy out.

“He thought the umpire, when he pointed, pointed that it was a strikeout,” Shelton said.

When the pitching couldn’t endure the lack of support, the Pirates lost for the second consecutive game after grabbing a lead in extra innings only to lose it when the Marlins (43-45) came to bat. It was the Pirates’ eighth game in their past 12 decided by one or two runs.

After Ben Gamel’s RBI double gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the top of the 11th, Wil Crowe, the fifth Pirates pitcher, gave up a single to Avisail Garcia and a triple to Brian Anderson that scored two runs, including bonus runner Jesus Aguilara.

Before the 11th, solid pitching from starting pitcher Zach Thompson and relievers Chase De Jong, Duane Underwood Jr. and Manny Banuelo allowed only seven hits and stranded nine runners.

Thompson did his part, working 6²⁄₃ innings and surrendering four hits and three walks — two among the first three Marlins batters. He left the game after throwing 100 pitches, an out short of becoming the third Pirates starter in the past three games to work seven innings. Mitch Keller and JT Brubaker each threw seven Tuesday and Wednesday.

It was the 11th time in Thompson’s past 12 starts in which he allowed two or fewer earned runs.

“It looked like he was a little tentative the first two innings and then he really settled in, used his sinker,” Shelton said. “He pitched well. It was as effective as he’s been. The sinker and the cutter (he threw 58 of them), mixed in the curveball, did a nice job, gave us a chance to win the game.”

Marlins starter Braxton Garrett, who entered the game with only 29 strikeouts in 35 1/3 innings, whiffed 11 batters in six innings. The Pirates’ first hit against Garrett was an apparent one-out single by Ke’Bryan Hayes that was misplayed into a triple by Marlins right fielder Bryan De La Cruz. But Hayes was stranded at third, one of 12 runners the Pirates left on base.

The Pirates’ first run was unearned after Marlins third baseman Anderson allowed Diego Castillo’s ground ball to roll through his legs and into the left-field corner. Tsutsugo, who had reached base on an infield single, scored to tie the score, 1-1.

Earlier, through the first five innings, the most notable plays by either team were defensive efforts by the Pirates.

One worked; one did not.

In the third inning, Cruz hit 97.8 mph on the radar gun with a throw across the diamond to retire Luke Williams. It was the hardest throw in MLB during the Statcast era (since 2015), 14 mph above the National League average this season and more than three times faster than the Marlins’ first hit.

Miguel Rojas’ infield single left his bat at only 31.7 mph.

Then, with the score tied at 0-0 in the fifth inning, the Marlins’ Joey Wendle doubled into the right-field corner. Right fielder Castillo quickly retrieved the baseball and threw to Newman, whose relay to catcher Jason Delay appeared to nail the Marlins’ Billy Hamilton.

Mackay called out Hamilton, who was blocked from the plate by Delay’s left leg, but the call was overturned on replay review to account for the game’s first run. Diving head-first, Hamilton reached the plate with his left hand.

NOTES: Pitcher Aaron Fletcher, who was designated for assignment last Friday, was claimed off waivers by the San Francisco Giants. … Pitcher Cam Vieaux cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis. He was designated for assignment Monday.