PITTSBURGH — With a one run lead, closer Joel Hanrahan came in to notch his 40th save on the season. But baseball can like a rollercoaster. And on Friday night at PNC Park, Hanrahan found that out the hard way.
Pinch-hitter Chris Heisey reached first on an infield hit to shortstop Ronny Cedeno. The next batter, Brandon Phillips hit a single up the left side.
“They really didn’t hit the ball too hard,” Garrett Jones said. “They had a little bloop hit, a ground ball hit. So we had some freak things happen that inning but we didn’t give up, stayed strong.”
With two outs, Jay Bruce was intentionally walked to get to Todd Frazier. After battling through an eight pitch at-bat, Frazier was hit in the hand by an 98-mph fastball to walk in the tying run.
Hanrahan was able to escape the inning, but the lead was blown. Since making eight straight scoreless appearances, Hanrahan has been scored upon in three of his last five outings.
“The games the game,” Bucs Manager Clint Hurdle said. “There was some stretches where it all looked easy because he was pitching so well. He made it look easy. It’s not easy and its probably what he’s realizing right now, there’s a greater degree of difficulty then there was earlier in the season. The volume of pitches probably caught up to him tonight more than anything.”
The Pirates battled back and proved to be resilient in the bottom of the 9th inning.
With one out, pinch-hitter Jason Jaramillo hit a double to left field. Hurdle called upon Chase d’Arnaud to pinch run at second base.
Ryan Ludwick followed with a pinch-hit walk off single to center field to win the game, 4-3.
“We’re taught when we’re on second base, one out, to just read the outfielder,” d’Arnaud said. “He started retreating right away towards the fence. I saw the numbers on his back and that he wasn’t going to catch it. So I kept inching off and as soon as I was certain that he wasn’t going to catch it I continued on home.”
“I felt like it was what I was supposed to do,” Ludwick said. “It’s been a while since I’ve hit a walkoff, but it felt good.”
“To have that at-bat, get down [in the count] early, stay in the at-bat, and actually, you know, not that bad of a pitch by the pitcher,” Hurdle said. “His presence, he kept his hands back and got the barrel on it. Everybody’s extremely happy for him.”
Rookie left-hander Jeff Locke took the mound for his third Major League start. Coming off a rough outing in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, Locke tossed his best game of the three big league appearences.
“The first game, I was able to go through five and give up some runs, but able to get through five” Locke said. “In L.A. I went three and came out. Anytime you can do better than your last time. It’s a process. I’m definitely taking the mound now, the nerves are gone, the composures there. I’m still leaving some pitches up and falling behind hitters obviously. The plays Cutch made tonight, I think he caught like, 11 balls out there tonight in center field. I was able to use him a lot and fortunately get some good plays out of the defense.”
It wasn’t until the 3rd inning that Locke gave up his first hit of the game, a single to Ramon Hernandez. But despite giving up a second hit in the frame, Locke escaped the inning without giving up a run.
The lone run that Locke gave up in his outing came in the 5th inning. After tossing 4.1 scoreless frames, Locke walked pitcher Edison Volquez. After advancing to second on a fielders choice by Drew Stubbs, Joey Votto hit a RBI single to left field to plate the first Reds run.
Hurdle went to rookie Daniel Moskos, who struck out Jay Bruce to end the inning.
Locke allowed one run on six hits over 4.2 innings. He walked two and struck out one, needing 80 pitches.
“He’s learning how to attack some hitters,” Hurdle said. “I give him some credit because he absolutely had to know the dimensions of the ballpark. He pitched to the ballpark. He threw strikes. Maybe not as many first pitch strikes as he we would like, but he himself has pitched the best game he has since he’s been here. He mixed in his breaking ball pretty good. He threw some changeups. He’s got to feel good about his effort tonight.”
Locke said first pitch strikes is still something that he needs to improve upon.
“You’ve got to find a way to get ahead of those guys,“ Locke said. “It’s easier when you can fill it up earlier and then expand from there. Definitely need to fill it up early and get ahead of guys and it will take care of itself.”
The bullpen from there, allowed just one run over the next 3.1 innings. Moskos, Tony Watson and Jason Grilli made scoreless appearances with six strikeouts.
“Danny came in in a nice situation, the game at the time is on the line,“ Hurdle said. “Punches out a very, very good left-handed hitter that’s not a gimme against left-handed pitching by any means. Tony was able to follow up on that with two great sequences of pitches against Votto and Bruce again. The young men, they grew up. They’re making pitches. They probably have a better feel for that role in those situations now than they did earlier in the year. They’re showing better command. Grilli has just continued to take the ball and get outs, get big outs…They showed really good poise and made really good pitches in critical times. All three of them.”
Garrett Jones connected with a 1-0 pitch for a two-run homer in the 2nd inning. The long ball was estimated to have traveled 458 feet, going over the seats in right center field.
“It definitely felt good to square one up finally, it felt like its been a while,” Jones said. “To do it with a runner on base and help the team score some runs, it definitely felt good. It felt like a nice, smooth swing and squared it up. But it definitely came off the bat nice and sweet.”
With two outs in the 3rd, Andrew McCutchen hit a double down the third baseline and scored on a RBI single by Ryan Doumit to right field.
The 3-2 lead by the Pirates remained intact until the lead was blown in the 9th, but the club prevailed in the bottom of the frame for the walk-off win.
“Sometimes baseball games, they can be an emotional rollercoaster, ” d’Arnaud said.
And on Friday night, in front of 23,632 on the season, marking a total of 1,874,283 on the year, the fourth largest season total in club history, that proved to be true.
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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