Before the game, Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle was asked what Erik Bedard had to do to get back into his groove. Hurdle answered that the struggles with Bedard haven’t come at home, but they’ve taken place on the road. At first, Hurdle’s words looked accurate as Bedard coasted through the first three innings, allowing just one walk and no hits on 39 pitches. When the fourth inning came however, the Bedard with a 6.60 ERA on the road appeared.
“The fourth inning was a bad inning all around,” Hurdle said. “He had a leadoff walk to the same hitter (as the first inning). He had a ball in Cabrera’s hot zone that he probably wanted lower. The ball was just elevated the rest of the inning.”
It truly was an inning to forget for Bedard as he allowed five runs on four hits, including an absolute blast from Melky Cabrera to dead left field. After only 39 pitches entering the inning, Bedard would throw 35 more before he was shown the exit with two outs in the inning.
“I just threw pitches and they hit it,” Bedard said. “I didn’t feel anything different, they were just hitting the pitches. Melky did (hit a good pitch). Rod was going to block it and it was going to go in the dirt, but he hit a home run.”
The Pirates got out of the inning as Chris Resop entered the game and Pedro Alvarez made a tremendous diving stop to limit the damage to five. Trailing only 5-3, a comeback was still in sight.
Casey McGehee would hit his sixth homer of the season, his first at home, to pull the Pirates to within a run before a sacrifice fly by the Giants gave them a two-run cushion.
In hopes of pulling the team back in the game, Alvarez hit a massive 457 foot home run to left center off of left-handed specialist Javier Lopez who hasn’t allowed a homer to a lefty since 2008. The homer was the longest hit of the season for the Pirates, but the result ended up falling short in a 6-5 losing effort.
So the question is, what’s wrong with Bedard? On May 9, Bedard left his start with back spasms and while he insists he’s ok, his ERA has shot up to 6.52 in 51.1 innings pitched since the injury.
“Yeah,” Bedard said. “I feel better than I’ve felt in the last couple of years. I’m just going to keep battling and keep throwing strikes.”
Hurdle however, said that they have an idea of how to fix Bedard, but wouldn’t dive into details.
“We’ve got some thoughts,” Hurdle said. “We’ll share them with him first.”
While these aren’t the Astros, the Pirates still put up five runs off of another former Cy Young winner and are still winners of eight of their past 10 games. Even more importantly however, is the fact that the Pirates will still be at least one game ahead of the Reds in the National League Central deepening on the result of their game against the Padres.
While the first game of the series wasn’t the pitching matchup that was advertised, tomorrow’s matchup of James McDonald (8-3, 2.45 ERA) and former Pirate turned All-Star Ryan Vogelsong (7-3, 2.26 ERA). Vogelsong will enter tomorrow’s game as the National League leader in ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. ET with a post game concert by Daughtry to follow.
Photo Credits: Getty Images
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