Another pitcher’s duel broke out at PNC today with both bullpens faltering in a 3 – 2 Cubs victory in the season opening series finale.
Travis Wood and James McDonald cruised through the first two innings, only giving up a walk each, but J-Mac would encounter some trouble in the 3rd. After getting Brent Lillibridge to fly out, he allowed opposing pitcher, Travis Wood to single. David DeJesus would ground out to advance Wood to second, then Starling Castro would score him on a single. 1 -0 Cubs after 2 ½ innings.
The Pirates would get into the hit column in the bottom by way of Clint Barmes’s second double of the season with one out but McDonald would ground out and Starling Marte would fly out to end the inning.
From there, both pitchers, again, cruised as they would hold each other hitless (gave up 1 walk each during that streak) until being removed. (Wood in the 6th, McDonald in the 7th). “It was a real good outing by James, he had good pace, followed the game plan, his curveball came in really well.” Said manager Clint Hurdle, “He used all four pitches today, threw strikes and had a really nice outing.”
Andrew McCutchen would lead the 7th off and reach by way of a Valbuena error. He would steal second before a Gabby Sanchez strikeout and a Pedro Alvarez pop-out. Cutch would then steal third where he would be stranded due to a Neil Walker strikeout looking.
Both bullpens would pitch scoreless eighths and Jared Hughes would come in for the 9th and allow a 2-out 2-run homer by Nate Shierholtz after walking Anthony Rizzo which would turn out to be the deal-breaker.
The Pirates tried to mount a rally for themselves against Carlos Marmol but fell short. Starling Marte would lead off with a single followed by a Russell Martin walk. Cutch would then knock in Marte with an RBI single making it 3 – 1.
Gabby Sanchez would follow that with a sharp grounder that snuck under the glove of a diving Anthony Rizzo allowing Martin to score to make it 3 – 2 and move Cutch to third with no out. Pedro Alvarez would then come up and strike out and Neil Walker would follow with a game ending double play.
Cubs win 3 – 2 and take the opening series. “We found a way, in the two games that we lost, to get not just the tying run, but the winning run to the plate, so we have to find ways to start doing the offensive thing a little earlier”, said Hurdle.
Andrew McCutchen was left in scoring position with no out twice late in the game.
McDonald will be tagged for the loss even though he only allowed one run in seven innings while giving up only two hits and striking out four. This is a good sign for McDonald as he finished the 2012 season on a sour note. “I was happy the way I competed, every pitch meant something for me today.” Said McDonald, “It helps it, it helps my confidence pretty good, just got to keep it going to my next start”
The Pirates will now take to the road for a 3-game set in LA to take on the Dodgers. Game one of the series is tomorrow night at 10:05.
Starters Lines:
McDonald (Loss): 7 IN, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K’s, 1 R, 1 ER
Wood (Win): 6 IN, 1 H, 2 BB, 4 K’s
Paid Attendance: 11,634
Time of game: 2:44
