PITTSBURGH _ More than six hours after Wednesdays' game began, David Peralta took off for second. The count to Paul Goldschmidt was full, and when Goldschmidt grounded to short, Peralta reached scoring position.
That became important two batters later when Chris Owings singled. His hit gave the Arizona Diamondbacks the go-ahead run in the 14th inning and handed the Pirates a 6-5 loss.
The final scoring came against Jhan Marinez in his third inning of work. Daniel Hudson and Johnny Barbato allowed tie-breaking hits earlier in the game. That was before the 1 hour, 33-minute rain delay that paused the game just after Jordy Mercer drove a home run through the rain to tie it.
The Pirates went 2-4 during the homestand, losing series to both the Diamondbacks and the New York Mets, and fell to 24-30. They begin a road trip Friday against the Mets in New York, followed by a two-game series next week against the Baltimore Orioles.
The Pirates trailed, 4-3, entering the ninth when Fernando Rodney got involved. Francisco Cervelli drew a leadoff walk. Andrew McCutchen followed suit. Goldschmidt bobbled Gift Ngoepe's sacrifice bunt, so the Pirates had the bases loaded with nobody out.
Mercer's grounder looked like it was headed for grass. Owings made a great play to stop it. He tagged second himself and threw out Mercer at first, but the run scored and the game was tied. Up came Josh Bell with McCutchen on third. A base hit would win the game. Bell struck out.
The rain began in the 11th. Nick Ahmed wanted no part of a delay. He drilled a Barbato fastball out of the deepest part of left-center field.
Mercer wanted to keep playing. With the Pirates down to their final out, he homered off J.J. Hoover into the visitors' bullpen.
Marinez, the final reliever available, took the mound for the 12th, but by that point after 20 minutes or so of hard rain, crew chief Gary Cederstrom called for the tarp.
For the second time in three starts, the need for offense prevented Chad Kuhl from pitching more than five innings. He allowed two runs, both in the third inning on Jake Lamb's triple, and three hits. Lamb's triple was not in itself awful _ a medium liner to right-center field that McCutchen almost reached with a dive. The two walks that preceded it, one to Gregor Blanco and one to Goldschmidt, rendered the triple dangerous.
