Pirates starter Jameson Taillon walked Nolan Arenado and Mark Reynolds to start the top of the fourth, but an Ian Desmond strikeout sandwiched between pop outs from Carlos Gonzalez and Trevor Story quickly ended the threat.
Max Moroff led off the first with a walk and then jogged home on Josh Harrison's homer for a 2-0 Pirates lead. Now 3-1 on the year, he'll bring a 2.90 ERA and 1.34 WHIP with him into Sunday's matchup against the defending World Champion Cubs. In his final rehab start, Taillon threw 97 pitches, so it's possible he could have gone longer. Gonzalez went 0-for-4, and his average dipped to.219.
"I think the thing with CarGo is that we need him to just get back in the zone and handle pitches (that) are good ones to swing at", Black said.
Even if Taillon was pulled prematurely, it's tough to argue with his results. Colorado, the best fielding team in the National League, committed two errors in the game - one by Trevor Story and one by Freeland. He shares a trait with Colorado starting pitcher Chad Bettis, who has battled and beaten testicular cancer in a whirlwind few months.
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Schwartzel played well for most of the tournament, but a 4-over 74 in the third round made for a steep hill to climb on Sunday. Kim, 25, was tied for ninth to start the fourth round and picked up four birdies against one bogey for a strong finish.
The fact that Taillon's first start back came against the Rockies should not be ignored. He returned to the hill just five weeks after undergoing surgery for testicular cancer and looked as though he didn't miss a beat.
Before the start, the Rockies tweeted their support for Taillon.
Interestingly enough, the pitcher's next start on Monday will come five weeks to the day after he had surgery. The under is 9-2 in Cole's last 11 on grass and the under is 9-2 in Cole's last 11 starts overall while Pittsburgh are 8-17 in Cole's last 25 starts.
Shortly after he was diagnosed, Taillon put up a message on Twitter vowing to "use every setback as an opportunity for growth".
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