After striking out 17 times in the season opener, the Pittsburgh Pirates found it better not to swing against the Miami Marlins.
The Pirates were content to wait and see if closer-turned-starter A.J. Puk could throw strikes, which the 6-foot-7 left-hander struggled to do with any consistency. After allowing only 13 walks last season (two intentional), Puk gave free passes to six of the first 13 batters he faced.
The Pirates took advantage of Puk’s command issues to draw a bases-loaded walk to jump out to an early lead, then used timely hitting to beat the Marlins, 7-2, on Friday night at loanDepot park.
Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes committed two errors (one fielding, one throwing) but went 2 for 3 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored as the Pirates got 10 hits against the Marlins.
“Just tough plays. I should’ve made them, but the team picked me up,” Hayes said of his errors on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “We did a nice job with the bats, and we were able to turn the double plays and make up for those mistakes.”
Otherwise, it was a strong day for the defense. After turning three double plays in the opener, the Pirates turned four more Friday night. It marked the first time since at least 1900 that they turned at least three double plays in each of the first two games of the season and the first by any MLB team since the New York Mets in 2007.
“We built the bullpen a little bit different than we have in the past,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said, “just because of the depth where we have guys that can get punchouts, then there’s guys that can effectively put the ball on the ground and get double plays.”
Lefty Martin Perez, signed to a one-year, $8 million contract, held the Marlins to one run on six hits and three walks on 86 pitches in 4 1/3 innings in his Pirates debut. Righty Ryder Ryan (1-0) allowed one hit in 1 2/3 innings to earn his first major league win in only the second appearance of his career. Lefty Josh Fleming, who threw one pitch in the opener, covered the final three innings to get the save.
“That was fun,” Fleming told SportsNet Pittsburgh afterward in an on-field interview. “That was probably my first back-to-back coming out of the bullpen in my entire career, so that was pretty cool.”
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the second inning, which started with Edward Olivares and Henry Davis drawing walks before Oneil Cruz singled to left to load the bases and Jared Triolo drew a five-pitch walk to score Olivares for a 1-0 lead.
Michael A. Taylor hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Davis to make it 2-0, but Cruz tried to tag from second and was thrown out at third by Bryan De La Cruz for a double play. Puk got Connor Joe to ground out to end the frame but ran up his pitch count to 47 pitches.
The Piraes opened the third inning with Bryan Reynolds drawing a full-count walk, then scoring from first when Hayes drilled a 1-1 sinker low and inside down the third-base line for a double to make it 3-0. Hayes advanced to third on a wild pitch, and Andrew McCutchen drew a walk to put runners on the corners with no outs.
After Olivares singled to right to drive in Hayes for a 4-0 Pirates lead, the Marlins pulled Puk. He gave up four runs on three hits and six walks while throwing only 33 of his 68 pitches for strikes. Bryan Hoeing got out of the inning without any further damage.
The Marlins scored in the third when Luis Arraez scored from second on Jake Burger’s single to left to cut it to 4-1. De La Cruz singled to load the bases, but Perez got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to ground out to first to escape without further damage.
After a one-out double to right by Josh Bell, Hayes overthrew first on Burger’s grounder. Ryan replaced Perez and struck out De La Cruz on a sinker and Chisholm on a four-seam fastball to end another scoring threat.
Hoeing, who pitched four innings in relief, retired eight consecutive batters before Taylor drew a two-out walk in the sixth and scored on a double to right by Joe to give the Pirates a 5-1 lead.
The Pirates tacked on another run in the seventh off Burch Smith, as Hayes hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a single by Henry Davis and scored on a pop fly by Cruz that dropped in front of a sliding De La Cruz in shallow left to stretch the lead to 6-1.
In the eighth, Joe and Reynolds hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third for Hayes, who followed with a sacrifice fly to right to make it 7-1.
The Marlins got successive singles by Tim Anderson and Avisail Garcia to start the ninth, and both advanced to scoring position after a wild pitch by Fleming. Anderson scored on Christian Bethancourt’s groundout to make it 7-2 and end the bullpen’s scoreless streak at 10 innings.
Fleming credited a conversation with Davis for putting his mind at ease.
“He settled me down and we were able to get it to work in the last several innings,” Fleming said. “He just said, ‘Hey, you’re finishing this game. There’s no ifs, and or buts about it. Just focus up and you’ve got this.’ ”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.