PITTSBURGH _ After being swept out of St. Louis and scoring just three total runs in the process, the Pirates bounced back at home Friday.
Clint Hurdle's club scored four times in the first two innings, retired 13 of the final 16 Yankees' batters, and dealt the Yankees a loss for just the second time in 11 games, winning 6-3 at PNC Park Friday.
Pirates starter Tyler Glasnow _ who had allowed seven combined first-inning runs in his first two starts of the season _ flirted with trouble in the first, allowing a pair of two-out singles before striking out Yankees slugger Aaron Judge to end the inning.
The Pirates struck first in their half of the first off Yankees starter CC Sabathia. Jordy Mercer cracked his first home run of the season just to the right of straightaway center on Sabathia's second delivery of the game.
One more run came across to score in the half-inning despite the Pirates hitting just one ball out of the infield. That hit, an Andrew McCutchen single to left, advanced Josh Harrison from first to third. And two batters later, a David Freese infield single to the left side plated Harrison from third and gave the Pirates an early 2-0 lead.
That lead was doubled in the second as Jose Osuna roped a triple to the right center field gap, his first career hit, and scored three pitches later when Josh Bell blasted a long home run into the left-center field bleachers.
The four runs Sabathia relinquished in the first two innings matched his total amount allowed in his first three outings of the season combined.
The Yankees got on the scoreboard in the third. After Glasnow walked Brett Gardner, Chase Headley doubled down the right-field line. Osuna, a first baseman by trait, bobbled the ball in the corner, allowing Gardner to score the Yankees' first run of the game.
But Glasnow escaped further trouble in the inning, benefitting from Freese throwing out Headley at the plate on a ground ball off Judge's bat and then stranding two Yankees baserunners by striking out Greg Bird.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the same could not be said for Glasnow in the Yankees' half of the fifth. After recording two outs to begin the inning, the Pirates' starter allowed Jacoby Ellsbury and Judge to single.
Then, needing just one out to escape the jam and become eligible for his first win of the year, Glasnow got Greg Bird to roll over a fastball to the right side. Harrison _ who was positioned in shallow right field with the pull-heavy Bird up _ allowed the groundball to trickle under his glove. The error yielded two unearned Yankees runs and made the score 4-3.
The Pirates added two insurance runs in the seventh thanks to a costly Starlin Castro error. Castro couldn't glove a routine pop-up off the bat of McCutchen, allowing Mercer to score from first. Freese then singled McCutchen home to give the Pirates a 6-3 lead.
The Yankees threatened in the eighth against Pirates reliever Daniel Hudson, bringing the tying run to the plate in Matt Holliday. But Hudson struck out Holliday to end the inning.
Then in the ninth, closer Tony Watson relinquished a pair of two-out singles to bring the tying run to the plate for a second straight inning, this time in the form of Judge. But the lefty got Judge to ground out to short, clinching his fifth save of the season and Juan Nicasio's first win of the year. Nicasio retired all four hitters he faced to pick up the win.
The win moves the Pirates to 7-9 on the season and 4-3 in one-run games.
