Starling Marte's 3-run homer caps Pirates' late rally over Nationals



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Clint Hurdle took off the postgame podium at the PNC Park in the first place.

Pirates produced what he called "one of the best team victories we've had year."

Pirates overcame the loss of one of their highest-profile players in addition to an eighth-inning deficit for a 4-1 victory against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.

A reported in the past by Chris Archer – the team's second highest-paid active player – left the game after experiencing discomfort throwing warmup pitches in the second inning. This is a night after a 13-0 loss and on the heels of a three-game losing streak in which they had been outscored 22-1 and had lost 28 of 35 games since the All-Star break.

But even against national ace Stephen Strasburg, the Pirates (52-73) did not quit Tuesday – and may well have taken offense.

"The vibe (in the Pirates' dugout) does not match the record," Hurdle said. "The effort and the energy do not match the record. We know that. You do not win games on vibe and you do not win games on effort; you win games with results. We got the right results tonight; however, that team has gotten away in them. They're going to fight, they're going to play.

"There's a code of honor we're right now. They still represent the name on the front of the jersey. They still represent 'Pittsburgh' and they represent the name on the back. And that's what we're doing. "

With that, Hurdle ended his own postgame news conference, tersely grabbing his papers and briskly walking down the long hallway to the Pirates' clubhouse.

And despite all the losing, Hurdle's right, the Pirates do not have the look of a team that's given up on the season. They had a comeback victory, the second time in five days they did so in their final at-bat while overcoming a deficit.

"Right now, we're going to be together," said Felipe Vazquez, who got the final four for the win.

How to do it? How did it work? How did it work? How did it work? Howie Kendrick. That was not his biggest contribution to the win, though: his three-run tiebreaking homer the half-inning prior was.

Marsh Crushed a 1-2 fast-drying teammate Daniel Hudson, hitting it with an exit velocity of 103.8 mph to score Melky Cabrera and Adam Frazier for his career-high 22nd home run, one that gave the Pirates their first in- game lead in six days.

"I tried to put my best swing," Marte said, "and then I just got it."

The Pirates entered that eighth inning having scored one run previous 34 innings. Marte's shot to right-center was their first extra-base hit of the game and only their second extra-base hit over the previous 27 innings.

Moments before Marte's blast, the Pirates tied it Bryan Reynolds sacrifice fly; they'd loaded the bases with nobody out there – single-field single, walk and bunt single.

Still, that was much more than the Pirates had managed to go against Strasburg.

But he was mostly matched by Clay Holmes, Michael Feliz, Richard Rodriguez and Vazquez.

"We kind of knew what we were up against," said Holmes, who was one of the hit-and-run artists, "and we took it at one time – and Marte came up with us. up. It was a great win. "

Enough so that it is overshadowed the injury to Archer. Hurdle said Archer would have an MRI and be evaluated Wednesday.

Note: Vazquez briefly felt "a little glitch in his back" during the ninth inning, compelling Hurdle and a member of the training staff to visit the mound. Goal Vazquez remained in the game and revealed after the game that he was fine.

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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .

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