CHRISTOPHER PANSINO – OVATHLETICS.COM
The Pirates did not need any ninth inning miracles yesterday as solid pitching carried the Pirates to a solid 5-3 victory that swept the series.
Paul Maholm came through today, striking out 5 batters and only allowing 2 earned runs in his 6 and 2/3 innings. Maholm now 1-1, would be removed in the seventh after a triple by Paul Janish scored a run.
Truthfully Maholm could have finished the inning, but Pirates already had Joel Hanrahan ready in the bullpen and probably didn’t want to overextend their starter and risk the lead.
The Pirates bats for the most part struggled yesterday, but they were able to string together five runs in the fourth inning.
In fact, out of the 5 total hits the Pirates had yesterday, 4 of them came in the fourth inning.
Delwyn Young got the inning stared with a single to right field. After Andrew McCutchen flied out, Lasting Milledge would single to center field to get men into scoring position.
Garrett Jones would follow with walk on just four pitches to load the bases.
Then Ryan Church hit a shallow single to left that deflected off the shortstops glove to score to Young, 1-0.
The following batter Bobby Crosby would be hit by a pitch, which would score a run as all base runners advanced, 2-0.
Red staring pitcher Bronson Arroyo pitched well for most of the game going a total of six innings, but struggled with his control of the curveball throughout the fourth, perhaps leading to Crosby being hit.
Jason Jarramillo, who got the start at catcher yesterday, was next to bat. He dazzled some 13,800 fans in attendance by hitting a base clearing double help to put the Pirates in front 5-0. Jarramillo finished 2-3 and clearly was the player of the game.
And that was all Pirates needed, as the bullpen did not blow the lead with the combined help of Harahan, Donnelly, and Dotel allowed only one hit and one earned run to finish off the Reds.
Closer Octavio Dotel looked in good form despite give up a homerun in the ninth. As seen in earlier games, Dotel went right back to business after giving up a homerun to Jay Bruce as he struck out the other three batters to end the inning and get the save.
With the win yesterday the Pirates moved within a half-game of first place and are now two games over .500. The Pirates have Monday off before staring a three game home series with the Milwaukee Brewers.
