PITTSBURGH -- Maybe the fates owed this one to the Pirates, who famously suffered the after-effects of 19-inning games in both 2011 and 2012. That debt was paid Monday night, when the Detroit Tigers hit town the night after their 19-inning grind in Toronto with really only one hope.The Tigers needed Justin Verlander to be on, and to be long-winded. He was neither of those, or even healthy, and the Bucs benefited with an Interleague laugher, 11-6, at PNC Park. 
This was still "Buc Light," a lineup devoid of Andrew McCutchen, now on the disabled list, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez. But the replacements snowballed over an impaired Verlander and Detroit's stressed bullpen, abetted in no small measure by all-around sloppy play by a team clearly dragging both physically and mentally after six-and-a-half hours on Toronto's turf.Jeff Locke put in his five-plus innings for the win, although he wound up being charged with four runs. A late Tigers charge got them as near as having the potential tying run in the hole in the eighth after Rajai Davis drilled a two-run double off Casey Sadler.The Pirates had eight runs and nine hits by the end of the third, the big blows being Starling Marte's bases-clearing triple in the first and Travis Snider's two-run homer in the second off Justin Miller. Russell Martin and Ike Davis hit back-to-back homers in the sixth off another righty reliever fresh from Triple-A Toledo, Kevin Whelan.Snider clocked his second homer of the game, No. 9 of the season, off lefty Phil Coke in the eighth, punctuating his three-hit, four-RBI game. It was his third career two-homer game.Every position player in the lineup had at least one hit, with Josh Harrison the high man with three, and Jordy Mercer, Marte and Snider having two each.And it all started against the unrivaled pitching Goliath of Interleague Play, Verlander, whose record streak of 14 straight wins over National League clubs ended under the pain of a five-run first endured under the duress of a sore shoulder.Verlander, who came out after that first and will undergo further evaluation of the discomfort he felt, had also been 25-2 overall against the NL.So the Tigers couldn't give the Pirates the good fight their manager anticipated. Clint Hurdle had looked forward to "playing one of the better teams in baseball," hoping his boys would find it as formative as they did a year ago.There is an interesting mind-game at work here. Last season, the Pirates were in third place, still feeling their oats, when a similar four-game scrum with the Tigers crossed their schedule in late May. It became a validating experience for the Bucs; they won three of the games, two of them 11-inning, 1-0 survivals, and took flight.Tom Singer / MLB.com
This was still "Buc Light," a lineup devoid of Andrew McCutchen, now on the disabled list, Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez. But the replacements snowballed over an impaired Verlander and Detroit's stressed bullpen, abetted in no small measure by all-around sloppy play by a team clearly dragging both physically and mentally after six-and-a-half hours on Toronto's turf.Jeff Locke put in his five-plus innings for the win, although he wound up being charged with four runs. A late Tigers charge got them as near as having the potential tying run in the hole in the eighth after Rajai Davis drilled a two-run double off Casey Sadler.The Pirates had eight runs and nine hits by the end of the third, the big blows being Starling Marte's bases-clearing triple in the first and Travis Snider's two-run homer in the second off Justin Miller. Russell Martin and Ike Davis hit back-to-back homers in the sixth off another righty reliever fresh from Triple-A Toledo, Kevin Whelan.Snider clocked his second homer of the game, No. 9 of the season, off lefty Phil Coke in the eighth, punctuating his three-hit, four-RBI game. It was his third career two-homer game.Every position player in the lineup had at least one hit, with Josh Harrison the high man with three, and Jordy Mercer, Marte and Snider having two each.And it all started against the unrivaled pitching Goliath of Interleague Play, Verlander, whose record streak of 14 straight wins over National League clubs ended under the pain of a five-run first endured under the duress of a sore shoulder.Verlander, who came out after that first and will undergo further evaluation of the discomfort he felt, had also been 25-2 overall against the NL.So the Tigers couldn't give the Pirates the good fight their manager anticipated. Clint Hurdle had looked forward to "playing one of the better teams in baseball," hoping his boys would find it as formative as they did a year ago.There is an interesting mind-game at work here. Last season, the Pirates were in third place, still feeling their oats, when a similar four-game scrum with the Tigers crossed their schedule in late May. It became a validating experience for the Bucs; they won three of the games, two of them 11-inning, 1-0 survivals, and took flight.Tom Singer / MLB.com
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