The Pittsburgh Pirates found ways to get runners in scoring position against the Los Angeles Dodgers, as eight of their first 12 batters reached base.
What they couldn’t do was bring them home.
Justin Turner outdid them in two swings.
The red-bearded third baseman hit a pair of solo home runs off Pirates lefty Tyler Anderson to lift the Dodgers to a 2-1 win Wednesday night before a season-high 10,957 at PNC Park, after a start delayed 70 minutes by a rainstorm.
Anderson (3-6) allowed only those two runs on six hits and two walks in six innings but got no run support.
“You try not to pay attention to the score too much,” Anderson said. “Your job is to go out there and take every inning one at a time or pitch one at a time and just try to get outs. … You’re not so worried about how many runs we’re scoring or they’re scoring. Your job is just to try to put up as many zeroes as you can, regardless of whether we score one, two, zero or 10.”
The Pirates (23-37) lost their redbeard when first baseman Colin Moran was hit by a David Price inside pitch on the right hand in the fifth inning and left the game. Moran will be evaluated by team doctors Thursday.
“It’s frustrating,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “One of our better hitters as our No. 4 overall hitter. … We’ll just have to wait and see what the results are.”
It’s a loss the Pirates can ill afford, especially after Moran missed nearly a month with a left groin strain before coming off the injured list on Sunday. Moran is batting .333 with runners in scoring position, and the Pirates stranded 10 runners.
The Dodgers (36-26) got a big game from Turner, who went 3 for 5, recording the 11th multi-homer game of his career. He got the Dodgers off to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when he hit a 1-1 fastball 409 feet into the visiting bullpen in left-center for his 10th homer and added No. 11 with a 348-foot shot to left in the third.
Turner has a career .500 batting average (17 for 34) against Anderson.
“I feel like my pitches kind of play into his swing and the way he hits,” Anderson said.
The Pirates got to Dodgers starter Tony Gonsolin, as Adam Frazier extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a leadoff single to left. Frazier was forced out on a fielder’s choice by Bryan Reynolds, who scored when Gregory Polanco’s line drive went off the glove of Dodgers first baseman Albert Pujols and into shallow right field.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Michael Perez drove a 2-2 fastball toward the right field fence but it veered foul. Gonsolin got him swinging on a full count but required 36 pitches in the inning.
The Dodgers got out of another bases-loaded jam in the second, after Gonsolin walked Frazier, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Reynolds with two outs. Victor Gonzalez (3-0) replaced Gonsolin — who walked five batters and struck out four — and got Moran to line out to left to end the inning.
With two outs in the third, Turner hit a 2-1 pitch toward the cutout in the corner of left field where the 5-foot-9 Ka’ai Tom leaped to snag it. When Tom bounced off the padded wall, however, the ball popped out of his glove and into the bleachers for a home run and 2-1 Dodgers lead.
In the ninth inning, the Pirates had the tying run at second after Tom drew a leadoff walk and advanced on Frazier’s groundout. Hayes lined a 3-2 pitch right at Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen for the final out.
“We’ve created scoring opportunities, and we’ve not gotten the big hit at times,” Shelton said. “And we’ve hit the ball hard. We hit the ball hard three times in those situations and didn’t get a ball to fall, and that’s kind of how the game goes.”
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