Big Lead Sports Bar

4/28/2010

PIRATES' WIN STREAK REACHES TWO

The 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates are masters of the dramatic victory, and they would prove that again with a 6-5 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in 14 innings on Tuesday afternoon. Of the Pirates' nine wins, three of them on the game's final hit and six of them  came in the ninth inning or later, so this was basically par for the course.

Ryan Doumit hit a pinch-hit solo home run off of the detiriorating Trevor Hoffman in the ninth inning to tie the game, and Garrett Jones hit a two-out, run-scoring double in the 14th to win it for the Bucs. DJ Carrasco closed out the Brewers in the bottom of the 14th frame for his first win of the season, wrapping up three innings of shutout relief.

The Pirates got four hits and two home runs from Andrew McCutchen, three hits from Aki Iwamura, and a two-run homer from Andy LaRoche to supply the bulk of the offense. They finished with a respectable 13 hits on the afternoon, keeping in mind that it did take them 14 innings to rack up that many.

Paul Maholm allowed seven hits and four earned runs over seven innings, and the bullpen did a tremendous job by allowing just one run in the last seven innings. Believe it or not, but these teams now have twin 9-12 records after 21 games in the 2010 season. Personally, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that fact.

The Bucs have a long flight to Los Angeles, where they meet the Dodgers for a four-game series. Brian "Don't Call Me Plaxico" Burres amd his 9.31 ERA faces off against Clayton Kershaw in the first game on Thursday night at 10:10.

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3 comments:

okel dokel said...

My favorite line from the game recap on ESPN, "A ball boy made a terrific diving grab of a foul ball in the third inning, and had several scrapes on his left knee afterward."

Wow! The ball boy's exploits merit more coverage than either team's performance.

Adam said...

9-2 when the staff gives up 5 runs or less.

HomeRunFromBehindTheMeatballs said...

@ okel - yeah, i noticed that too. They may not have shown all the on-field highlights, but they sure as heck are gonna show the ball boy gettin dirty! Such is the view of the pittsburgh pirates on a national scale :-/

@ Adam - yeah, their starting pitching is sooo much more of a disaster than even most skeptical fans would have predicted. As bad is this team has been, there's no way to sustain a 7.17 team ERA all season (8.07ERA by starting pitchers[in GS]). They HAVE to get better simply because they can't get worse!