A solid performance by Charlie Morton led the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 4-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants last night at PNC Park. Morton won his eighth game of the season, allowing just four hits over 6-2/3rds innings. He walked two and struck out eight. Neil Walker hit his 13th home run of the season and drove in two runs. The Pirates gained a half game on idle St. Louis, and are now 4-1/2 games back in the N.L. Central. The victory also put the Bucs eight games up on the Giants in the Wild Card Race. They remain four games in front of the Chicago Cubs.
Tonight, Jeff Locke (6-7, 4.31 ERA) will start for the Pirates against Madison Bumgarner (14-6, 2.98 ERA) of the Giants. It is Bumgarner’s first appearance at PNC Park since he shut the Pirates out in the 2014 Wild Card game, striking out 10 Pirates. Bumgarner has a 0.71 ERA with 35 strikeouts and one walk in his last three starts. First pitch is 7:05pm. Pre-game on WISR 680am is 6:40pm. The Pirates play at 4:05pm Saturday and Sunday’s game has been moved to 8:08pm for national television.
The Pirates could see the return of shortstop Jordy Mercer and third baseman Josh Harrison from the disabled list during the series.
The post Morton leads Pirates shutout of Giants appeared first on Inside Butler County – Butler, PA.
