Liriano bookends April with strong outings

The rain pounded the PNC Park crowd the entire night, but Francisco Liriano powering and pounding his way through the strike zone with command of his fastball gave the poncho-wearing crowd of 34,810 more than enough to cheer about in the Pirates' sixth straight win, 5-1 over the Reds.

Liriano bookended the month of April with a second win, his first since Opening Day. Saturday night’s 109-pitch performance, in which the lefthander lasted 6 2/3 innings, surrendered five hits and one run, didn’t issue a walk and fanned six, got soaked fans on their feet as he exited with 72 of his pitches going for strikes. It was Liriano's longest outing of the season.

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“We’ve seen this outing from him before,” Clint Hurdle said. Liriano’s 17 walks issued prior to Saturday's start was the most among National League pitchers. “Quick and efficient, a lot of strikes, no walks, only three three-ball counts on the night.

"That was an area of focus for him in his bullpens trying to get in here to pound the zone better with more pitch efficiency. We almost got him through seven. … On a night I thought was less than ideal with conditions I thought he handled his mound work very, very well.”



The Pirates’ win against the Reds (9-15) completed their best April in six seasons under Hurdle as they improved to 15-9 overall. The Bucs have won 10 of their last 13 games.

Liriano (2-1, 3.86 ERA) said everything is getting better and lining up with where he wants to be a month into the season, adding that he tried to block out the weather conditions to make sure it wouldn’t impact his grip. He wanted to and was able to get ahead in the count and dug in with the fastball from there.



He even helped himself at the plate, too, singling to left-center field in the fourth inning. No, Liriano smiled and said he hasn’t worked much on his approach at the plate between starts, but said like the rest of the Pirates he “just wanted to take some good at-bats, put a good swing on it and take some good pitches.”

It helped him that the Pirates’ offense continued putting the pressure on the opposing pitcher, this time getting after Alfredo Simon, whose start to the season -- as evidenced by an ERA that was 16.39 when he took the mound -- has been anything but stellar.

It didn’t take long for the Pirates to get after Simon (0-3) either, with leadoff batter John Jaso taking the first pitch and dropping it in the right field stands to put the Pirates up 1-0.

“That’s always cool when a guy hits a first-pitch homer,” Hurdle said. “Doesn’t happen very often.”

The 394-foot home run was Jaso’s first of the season, but it’s not the first time in his career where he led off the first inning with a homer. He did so four times before.



“It’s a game of adjustments and that’s just what I’ve kind of been doing,” Jaso said. “They’ve kind of noticed that I’ve been turning my back foot where it’s been turning toward the pitcher and almost like if you were to be in a sprinter’s stance, just kind of pushing my body forward and taking me off my back leg. It’ll affect every single swing if it’s doing that, so they noticed that, told me about it, so we’ve been playing around with other stuff.”

The Pirates combined for 10 hits and knocked on the door for most of the night, leaving 12 on base. From the top to the bottom of the order Hurdle’s club continued to press the Reds' pitchers. Through four innings Simon surrendered six hits, three earned runs, four walks and struck out four. He faced 23 batters, throwing 98 pitches, 56 of which were strikes.

“We didn’t crack him, but we pushed him,” Hurdle said. “It’s the second night in a row where we’ve come and hit a home run late off a reliever. Good to see.”

CANNON FODDER

• Francisco Cervelli went 2-for-4 and his RBI single in the fifth inning to right-center field turned a 1-1 game into a 2-1 lead. Cervelli’s hit plated David Freese, who also went 2-for-4. In between Freese and Cervelli was a brief delay while the Pirates challenged the ruling on the field that Starling Marte was hit by a Simon pitch that came in on his hands. The ruling on the field — which initially was that he wasn’t hit — was overturned.

While the conditions were far from ideal, and, of course, command issues happen, too —with the latter likely being the issue here — Cervelli found out a thing or two about dealing with the rain while trying to throw out Simon in the top of the fifth. Cervelli’s ball sailed as he tried to get it to Jaso at first base. With the ball behind Jaso, Simon bolted for second. The ball went back to Jaso who was able to throw it to Jordy Mercer in time for the out.

It was all part of a wild and wacky play off of Cervelli’s throwing error.

“I don’t think Cervelli’s throwing that ball down the line or anything like that,” Jaso said when asked about the  conditions. “I know pitchers,when it comes to rainy conditions, they’re kind of holding the ball differently and trying to guide it in there a little bit, so it is different. But we’re professionals. We’re paid to do this.”

• Sean Rodriguez’s two-run home run in the eighth inning was his fourth of the season. He drove the 0-1 pitch to left field to extend the Pirates’ lead to 5-1.

“I think [he’s] a guy that went home and did some homework and looked for ways to improve his offensive game,” Hurdle said. Rodriguez has 10 hits in 30 at bats this season, including two doubles. “The chase rate last year he felt he could improve. The swing and miss was something he said, ‘I can do better than that, I need to do better than that.’ ”

The best way to improve success, however, goes beyond the adjustments in spring training, Hurdle said.

“Nothing breeds confidence like some success early,” Hurdle said. “He’s a strong man. His hands are so strong in the box. That’s the one thing we continue to remind him. If you hold your ground and let your hands work, elevate the ball, see the ball up, because we’ve seen him do it in patches and this has been a really nice string this month that he’s gotten going.”