On the day of the release of Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” the ending to the Batman trilogy in which about half of it was filmed in Pittsburgh, the dark clouds were rising over PNC Park throughout the night. Despite roads closing due to flooding, the Pirates and the Marlins were able to get the first game of a three-game weekend set.
The game didn’t start off the way the Pirates or starting pitcher Kevin Correia could have envisioned. A leadoff home run to Jose Reyes and a single followed by two stolen bases for Emilio Bonifacio before scoring on a fielder’s choice would put the fish up 2-0 when the Pirates would record their first out of the ballgame.
“I gave up that home run on the second pitch up the game and another hit where his speed got him on second and third and he ended up scoring,” Correia said. “It was just a battle all night. There’s a lot of good hitters on their team and it was just a battle. I’ve been getting early, but I know it’s not over. I’ve been able to keep us in it and win it almost every time.”
Correia would settle in however, allowing just one more run in his five innings on the mound which included five strikeouts, just one short of his season high.
“It was a professional outing,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “He didn’t have his best stuff. The ball was elevated for most of the first three innings which spiked his pitch count as they kept fouling stuff off. He stayed away from the big inning. He found a way to get outs and give us a chance to win. He was competitive.”
The Pirates offense struck early as well as Garrett Jones drove in Alex Presley in the first, but the big blow the Marlins was the home run by Pedro Alvarez in the fourth inning and the RBI single for Clint Barmes scoring Rod Barajas. With the home run, Alvarez joins McCutchen as the only other Pirate with at least 20 home runs. This is the first time the team has had at least two players hit 20 homers since Jason Bay, Nate McLouth and Adam LaRoche did it in 2008.
The Pirates proved once again despite the deficit, they aren’t out of any games with the powerful bats they have been yielding.
“It’s a lot of fun and we’re never out of any game,” Alvarez said. “It doesn’t matter what the defect is. We have a group of guys that don’t give up and there’s nothing better than that.”
With the score tied entering the fifth inning, the “Pittsburgh Kid” Neil Walker stepped up and delivered a solo home run to put the Pirates on top for good 4-3. The blast was Walker’s eighth of the season and the Pirates 103rd of the year. They had 107 last year. In the month of July, Walker is second to only Andrew McCutchen in batting average and third to David Freese and McCutchen in OBP in the National League.
“I’ve just really been swinging at better pitches and have been more quiet and confident in the box,” Walker said. “I wasn’t very good with two strikes early in the year and you get exposed pretty quickly in this league when you do that and swinging at pitches that aren’t in the strike zone. I’ve been hitting some balls hard lately and they’ve been falling.”
Things got interesting as Joel Hanrahan gave up two singles in the ninth inning, but in the end he prevailed as he almost always does.
“Well a couple of balls got through and the second one was right over the mound,” Hurdle said. “We don’t want to re-construct his delivery, but that might have been a ball he can take care of. From that point on, he did what he does and made pitches.”
Tomorrow will feature the Pirates’ veteran ace A.J. Burnett (10-3, 3.78 ERA) against a familiar face in a new place Carlos Zambrano (5-7, 4.22 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET.
Photo Credits: Associated Press
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