PNC Park– A.J. Burnett threw out yet another quality start, but didn’t get any run support as the Pirates, yet again, battled back against the opposing bullpen for a 5 – 3 victory Wednesday night.
The Pirates struck first in the fourth when Neil Walker sent the first pitch he saw into the right-center seats for a Pirates 1 – 0 lead. In the last three pitches he saw, Walker had a GW homer in the 11th last night, a single in the first, and the homer in the fourth.
The Tigers would finally jump on Burnett in the fifth. Pittsburgh native, Don Kelly would draw his second of three walks in the game to lead off the inning. He would then score on an Andy Dirks RBI double. Miguel Cabrera would then come up and do what he does best….Crush the baseball into the Clemente seats. It was 3 – 1 Tigers after 5. Burnett would go six innings before giving the ball to Bryan Morris in the seventh.
It seemed like Anibal Sanchez would cruise along until his wheels would fall off in the seventh. After getting Andrew McCutchen to fly out to left, he allowed a single to Garrett Jones and a walk to Russell Martin. Pedro Alvarez, who struck out in his previous two at-bats, ripped a double into the North Side Notch to tie things at 3. The Pirates would not be done, though, as Travis Snider would take the first pitch he saw for an RBI single giving the Pirates the lead. They would tack one more run on in the inning when Jordy Mercer suicide squeezed Snider in to make it 5 – 3 Buccos.
Travis Snider stressed that they had to take advantage of the few mistakes Sanchez had in the game; “Sanchez didn’t give us much to capitalize on. I think Neil was the only guy that saw two first-pitch fastballs in the middle of the zone, so we knew as hitters, we had to grind. Pedro did a great job jumping on him, Jonsey had a big at-bat, Russell did the same thing, get on base and before they could get anything going in the bullpen we were able to get to him in that inning.”
Form there Tony Watson and Jason Grilli (Save #22) would shut down the Tigers by only allowing a hit and striking out 2. Final Score: Pirates 5, Tigers 3.
Clint Hurdle knows that his team has the capability of striking at any time no matter how much a pitcher is cruising; “The game up here can change quickly. You just gotta take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves and on offense that’s one of the things that we gotta do a better job at and we were obviously able to do a very professional job in the seventh inning tonight.”
Starters Lines:
Burnett (ND): 6 IN, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 BB, 4 K’s, 1 HR, 1 WP. 97 Pitches (60 Strikes)
Sanchez (L, 5 – 5):6 2/3 IN, 5 R, 5 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 9 K’s, 1 HR, 1 WP. 93 Pitches (71 Strikes)
Tomorrow’s Starters:
(LHP) Jeff Locke (PIT) 5 – 1, 2.45 ERA
(RHP) Doug Fister (DET) 5 – 2, 3.65 ERA
The Pirates will look to take the series in the final game of this 4-game, 2-city set tomorrow at 7:05.
(Photo Credit: Keith Srakocic)
