Gerrit Cole has impressive debut for Pirates

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Gerrit Cole took a shutout into the seventh inning of his major league debut and hit a two-run single in his first at-bat Tuesday night, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to an 8-2 victory in front of a festive crowd.

The top pick in the 2011 draft, Cole allowed two runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings after being called up from Triple-A Indianapolis earlier in the day. He began his highly touted career with a three-pitch strikeout - all 96-mph fastballs - of Gregor Blanco and struck out two overall. He did not walk a batter.

Pedro Alvarez went 3 for 3 with a home run to back Cole. Starling Marte also homered and Andrew McCutchen and Russell Martin had two hits each.

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