MIAMI _ As the onslaught unfolded at Marlins Park Friday night, the Pirates newcomers put on a symmetrical show. First Jose Osuna would reach base. Two batters later Gift Ngoepe would follow suit. By the time Osuna had singled in the sixth inning and Ngoepe tripled, both were 3 for 3 with two runs scored, a walk and an RBI.
That type production does not often blend into a box score. It did Friday, when the Pirates obliterated Adam Conley and the Miami Marlins, 12-2, discovering an offensive gear they haven't been able to reach thus far.
Prior to Friday night the Pirates had scored only 71 runs in 21 games. No team in baseball, save for the offensively hapless Kansas City Royals, had scored fewer. Offense was already going to be a challenge when Jung Ho Kang did not report to spring training because of legal issues related to his DUI arrest in South Korea; a May 25 appeal date, and the fact that he was already denied a visa once, mean the Pirates cannot count on anything from him. Starling Marte exacerbated the issue when he tested positive for Nandrolone and received an 80-game suspension.
The result has been a rotating cast of characters in right field and, due to defensive issues, Adam Frazier's DL stint and David Freese's recent hamstring tightness, second base. On Friday, Osuna and Ngoepe, newcomers both, produced. Osuna went 4 for 5, Ngoepe 3 for 3. Both contributed to an eight-run second inning, 11 percent of their previous total for the season.
Conley did not have his best command, which was evident early. Catcher J.T. Realmuto wanted Conley's 1-2 fastball to Jordy Mercer inside. Conley missed by the width of the plate and Mercer put it in the Clevelander club in left-center field for his second home run of the season.
Conley's command issues sucked him into hitter's counts in the second inning, which he would not complete. After Jameson Taillon struck out with the bases loaded for the inning's second out, the Pirates got rolling.
Josh Harrison singled. Mercer walked. Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run single. Conley hit Gregory Polanco to load the bases for Francisco Cervelli, who led off the inning. Cervelli lined a ball to left field in front of Marcell Ozuna, who slid. He couldn't catch or stop the ball, which rolled to the warning track for a bases-clearing triple. That would do it for Conley, who allowed nine runs while recording five outs, and threw 33 strikes and 27 balls.
Jose Urena entered, allowed an RBI single and promptly loaded the bases again for Taillon, who grounded out.
If you're counting at home, that's two at-bats with the bases loaded in one inning for Taillon. At that point he had more at-bats than innings pitched. The Pirates sent 14 men to the plate and put 11 of them on base _ six hits, four walks and a hit batter.
Taillon had the good stuff Friday. His two-seam fastball featured good movement and at times touched 97 mph. He flipped in his curveball when he wanted, with sharp break. The Marlins made him work in the third and fifth, and he exited after throwing 95 pitches in five innings of one-run ball.
