It didn’t take long for first baseman Derrek Lee to do damage against his former club on his first day back from the disabled list.
The first pitch Lee saw after missing nearly a month of action due to a fractured bone in his left hand resulted in a RBI single off right-hander Casey Coleman.
Much like in his debut after being acquired at the trade deadline by the Baltimore Orioles, Lee showed what a threat his bat is in the lineup. This time, however, Lee didn’t just hit a solo-shot. Lee took a 1-1 pitch to left field for a grand slam.
Trailing the Chicago Cubs 5-3 in the 9th inning, the Pirates rallied off closer Carlos Marmol. Xavier Paul leadoff the inning with a single to center field. Jose Tabata walked and after Alex Presley struck out swinging, Andrew McCutchen drew a walk to load the bases.
Marmol, who hit Lee by a pitch on the hand on August 3rd resulting in his DL stint, hung a slider and Lee capitalized on it. The grand slam was Lee’s seventh in his career at Wrigley Field, which is second most in the ballparks history behind Ernie Banks, who has eight.
Joel Hanrahan pitched a perfect frame in the 9th to notch his 34th save on the season in the Pirates 7-5 win.
Right-hander Ross Ohlendorf made his third start of the season on Saturday against the Cubs. Ohlendorf escaped trouble in the 1st inning after allowing a single and two hit batters by getting Alfonso Soriano to ground into a force out to get Darwin Barney at home. With two outs, Marlon Byrd grounded into a fielders choice allowing Ohlendorf to escape the inning with no runs scoring.
Ohlendorf tossed a scoreless 2nd inning but allowed the Cubs to tie the game at 1 with a sac fly in the 3rd.
The Cubs plated two runs off Ohlendorf in the 5th inning. After throwing 82 pitches, Manager Clint Hurdle called upon the bullpen, limiting him to just 4.0 innings.
Barney leadoff the 5th with a single and Ohlendorf issued back-to-back walks to Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena. Chris Leroux came in from the ‘pen with no outs and the bases loaded to limit the damage. Byrd grounded into a force out to plate the go-ahead run. But Leroux retired the next two batters to keep the Cubs lead within one run.
All in all, Ohlendorf was charged with three runs on seven hits over four innings. He walked two, hit two and struck out two.
The Cubs tacked on two runs off reliever Daniel McCutchen in the 7th inning to take what was a 5-3 lead before Lee hit a grand slam in the 9th to score the intentional winning runs in the victory.
With the 7-5 win the Pirates have won back-to-back games for the first time since August 15-16. The Bucs will play the finale game of the three-game set on Sunday at 2:20 PM ET. Right-hander Charlie Morton (9-8, 3.74 ERA) will face righty Randy Wells (6-4, 5.06 ERA).
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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