PITTSBURGH _ Getting things done against Felipe Rivero requires some luck. The Tampa Bay Rays found enough in the 10th inning Tuesday night to squeeze out two runs against the Pirates lefty, and the Pirates lost, 4-2, at PNC Park after their ninth-inning comeback forced extra innings.
Rays starter Alex Cobb no-hit the Pirates for the first six of his eight scoreless innings. Alex Colome blew a two-run lead in the ninth. Rivero cracked in the 10th.
Steven Souza Jr. lofted a soft single to center on Rivero's first pitch. Wilson Ramos chopped a grounder down the third-base line to David Freese's right. Freese went to backhand the ball. He missed. The ball hugged the foul line as it rolled toward the corner and Souza scored all the way from first. Ramos would later score on a sacrifice fly.
Colome replaced Cobb in the ninth with a 2-0 lead and promptly hit pinch-hitter John Jaso in the back of the head. The impact was only a glancing blow and Jaso took his base. After an out, Josh Harrison doubled to the wall in right field. Jaso rounded third and ran a third of the way home before stopping and retreating to the bag.
Andrew McCutchen came to bat in his return to the No. 3 spot in the order. He grounded a two-run double down the third-base line to tie the game.
Cobb attacked the Pirates with a 91-mph fastball and a knuckle curve, and they could not square up either. Out of 98 pitches Cobb threw, the Pirates swung and missed at only two of them. The closest the Pirates got to any semblance of offense through the first six innings was Harrison's one-out walk in the fourth.
The Pirates hit two balls hard right at defenders; neither Evan Longoria nor Tim Beckham had to move much when Harrison and Trevor Williams roped liners toward them. And Cobb got the token defensive gem that sometimes accompanies no-hitters in the second: Adeiny Hechavarria, the recently acquired shortstop making his first start as a Ray, denying Josh Bell a hit with a diving stop and throw.
Cobb worked ahead of hitters all night. Leading off the home seventh, Harrison got ahead 2-0 as Cobb missed inside with two fastballs. His third inside fastball found enough of the corner for Harrison to fist it into right-center field for the Pirates' first hit of the evening.
When June began, Williams looked like he had settled into his rotation spot. He followed a six-inning, one-run outing May 29 with seven innings of one-run ball against the New York Mets June 4. In Williams' next three starts, he allowed 11 runs and 16 hits in 15 innings.
Williams worked around Evan Longoria's first-inning single. He navigated a second-inning baserunner who reached via catcher's interference.
Then the strikeouts started.
Williams struck out a batter in each of the next five innings, including the side in the fifth. He set seven Rays down on strikes without walking any. They scored two runs against him in his seven-plus innings of work.
