A.J. Burnett and Erik Bedard locked in a pitchers-duel and the Pirate bullpen had a rare stumble as the Astros take game 2 of the series by the score of 4 – 2 in 11 innings.
The Astros loaded the bases with one out in the first, but Burnett would strike out Chris Carter and Carlos Pena to end the threat. The Pirates, on the other hand, would cash in on their chance with runners in scoring position as Andrew McCutchen would hit a 2-out double and immediately be brought in by a Gaby Sanchez double to make it 1 -0 Pirates.
That would be the most damage either team would get off of Burnett and Bedard as both combined for one-hit ball through the fourth inning. The Astros would tie things up in the fifth and going by this series’ theme of crazy baseball plays, they did it without a ball leaving the infield.
Marwin Gonzalez reached on an infield single to start off the inning and was sacrificed to second on a Bedard bunt. He would move to third on a groundout to second and score on a Jose Altuve (returning from the DL today) infield single to tie things at 1.
The Pirates would take the lead back in the sixth when Cutch hit his second double of the night which followed a Jose Tabata single to set up second and third with no out. Gaby Sanchez would pop out to second and Russell Martin would ground one to third causing Tabata to get thrown out at home for the second out. The Pirates did, though, still capitalize on the Cutch hit when Brandon Inge knocked him in with an RBI single to put the Buccos up 2-1.
A funny thing happened on this night, Mark Melancon showed he was human. Yes, I said it, Melancon gave up a run for the first time since April 14th allowing Houston to tie things up in the eighth. Trevor Crowe started the inning off with a soft ground ball that found its way into center field for a single. Altuve would do the same thing, only it was a hard-it ball to set up first and second with no out.
Castro would then hit a ball to Sanchez that he bobbled, ending any chance at a double play. He would be able to get the runner at second for the first out of the inning. Carter would then come up and hit a single to center to tie the game, yet again, at 2. Melancon would get Carlos Pena to ground into a double play to end the inning.
From there, the game would go into extra innings, 11 to be exact, as the Astros scored 2 off of Bryan Morris. Castro led the inning off with a double. Pena would then be intentionally walked to set up the double-play but both would advance a base on a Morris wild pitch. He would score on a Matt Dominguez grounder to second. Walker threw it home, but Castro touched the plate barely before Martins tag to make it 3 – 2. Hurdle would argue the call, but he would be ejected. “I thought we had a play and I thought we were able to get an out, but I went inside and the ump made the right call” said Hurdle. They would add another on a J.D. Martinez pinch-hit RBI single to make it 4 – 2.
The Pirates had their chances to extend their one-run lead in the sixth and seventh innings with bases loaded and two out, but were unable to get any runs across. Hurdle saw this as a major turning point in the game. “We had chances to get separation where you give up one in the eighth and it doesn’t tie the game. We had bats that we weren’t able to capitalize and get that separation.”
Another former Pirate, Jose Veras would come in to save it by throwing a perfect inning with a strikeout. Final Score: Astros 4, Pirates 2 /11.
The rubber-game of the series will be tomorrow afternoon at 12:35.
Starters Lines:
Burnett (ND): 7 IN, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 7 K’s. 100 Pitches (63 Strikes)
Bedard (ND): 6 IN, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 H, 3 K’s, 1 HP. 91 Pitches (59 Strikes)
Tomorrow’s Starters:
(LHP) Jeff Locke (PIT) 3 – 1, 3.15 ERA
(RHP) Lucas Harrell (HOU) 3 – 4, 5.11 ERA
(Photo Credit: Patric Schneider)
