Freeze Frame: 'Smoother' Marcano shows stuff in big-time at-bat taken at PNC Park (Pirates)

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

Tucupita Marcano celebrates his game-tying two-run double in the fifth inning of Sunday's 8-3 loss to the Diamondbacks at PNC Park.

Despite scoring a run in the second inning of Sunday's 8-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, the Pirates flirted with getting no-hit by Arizona's Merrill Kelly.

The offense struggled to threaten through the first four innings as Kelly faced just one over the minimum during that stretch. Only Connor Joe reached base, all thanks to Kelly, who walked him, committed a two-base error, then allowed Joe to score on a wild pitch.

Trailing in the fifth inning, 3-1, the Pirates seemed to be dead in the water. However, Joe once again gave the lineup a spark with a one-out single, finally getting the zero out of the hit column. Then, after dealing with some bad luck in his first at-bat, Rodolfo Castro worked another solid at-bat with a single, giving the Pirates two on with only one out.

However, we've been here before. Throughout the month of May, the Pirates have severely struggled with runners in scoring position. And now, the Pirates were going to have to rely on their No. 8 and 9 hitters to come through. But, Tucupita Marcano answered the call.

Marcano quickly fell behind 0-2, but battled his way back to work the count full. Then, Kelly opted to throw a changeup, but it caught too much of the lower-third of the strike zone and Marcano made him pay for it:

The 105.5-mph laser tied the game, livening a Sunday afternoon crowd of 21,418.

"I battled through the whole at-bat," Marcano said. "It was 0-2 right away, but every other pitch, I felt better and better though that at-bat and [the double] was the outcome. I hit the ball good because I was seeing the ball pretty good during that at-bat."

The Pirates' offense was unable to muster anything else what turned out to be an ugly loss. The three hits in the fifth inning were the only ones for the Pirates all afternoon, not to mention five wild pitches and three errors.

But, Marcano's moment shouldn't be overlooked. That was a big at-bat for a younger player.

"He’s having better swings," Derek Shelton said of Marcano. "We're talking about a kid that is getting more comfortable. He's done a nice job at short. Just continues to get better offensively. He’s a guy that you can do a lot with because he handles the bat really well. I really think his his swing is starting to to be a little bit smoother than we've seen in the past."

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