PNC Park \u2013 Brandon Cumpton saved his best game of the year so far for the main stage as he went 7 innings of shutout ball in a Pirates 6 \u2013 0 victory over the Cardinals to sweep the twi-night doubleheader and take a 1 \u00bd game lead in the NL Central.<\/p>\n
Cumpton, along with minor league batter mate, Tony Sanchez, shut down the second best team in baseball over seven innings of three-hit ball. The only time the Cardinals had a chance to break onto the scoreboard was in the third when Jon Jay reached with a one out single and went to third two batters later when Allen Craig reached via a Pedro Alvarez error. They would not score, though, as Cumpton would get Yadier Molina to fly out to center to end the inning. \u201cI really just attacked them with the fastball and pitched them in,\u201d Said Cumpton. \u00a0\u201cPitching in has kinda been my thing all year and I didn\u2019t want to run away from that up here, so I just tried to force the issue and get ground balls.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pirates got on the board first in the third inning when Jose Tabata reached on a David Freese error. He would reach third on a Josh Harrison single and score on a passed ball to make it 1 \u2013 0. They would make it 4 \u2013 0 in the fifth when Starling Marte led off the inning with a triple and scored on a Jordy Mercer RBI single. Andrew McCutchen would then come up and hit a ball deep to left which appeared to land in the glove of Matt Holliday at the wall, but the ball bounced off of his wrist and went into the crowd for a two run homer.<\/p>\n
They would add on more insurance in the seventh when Cutch led the inning off with a single and scored on a Gaby Sanchez double. After a ground out by Pedro Alvarez, Sanchez would score on a Tony Sanchez sac fly. It was T. Sanchez\u2019s first career RBI in the majors.<\/p>\n
Sanchez was nervous, like many in their debut in the field, but Sanchez was helped by a Pitcher he had caught in AAA all season. \u201cIt couldn\u2019t have been more ideal. I\u2019ve caught all these guys in spring training, but it\u2019s not a competitive atmosphere. You don\u2019t have 40,000 people in the stands, you\u2019re not in Pittsburgh for the first time, you\u2019re not catching in the big leagues for the first time. To have somebody that I\u2019m familiar with \u2013 we were on the same page the entire night, no shakes. It made it really easy for me and it was awesome. I mean, I had a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeanmar Gomez would come in and quiet the Cardinal bats over the final two innings to close things out for the first place Pirates. With the win, the Buccos extend their NL Central lead to 1 \u00bd games and hold the best record in baseball once again.<\/p>\n
Not a bad day for Clint Hurdles 56th<\/sup> birthday. \u201cYeah, it really was. You take the birthday and you move it aside. I\u2019ve had a few of them and I\u2019ve been on the field for most of them. Just really pleased with the effort, today.\u201d<\/p>\n Final Score: Pirates 6, Cardinals 0<\/p>\n Starters Lines:<\/p>\n Cumpton (W, 1 \u2013 1): 7 IN, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K\u2019s. 87 Pitches (65 Strikes)<\/p>\n Lyons (L, 2 \u2013 3): 6 IN, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K\u2019s, 1 HP, 1 HR. 108 Pitches (69 Strikes)<\/p>\n These two will be back in action tomorrow at 7:05 for game 3 of 4 in this series.<\/p>\n Tomorrow\u2019s Starters:<\/p>\n (LHP) Jeff Locke (PIT) 9 \u2013 3, 2.15 ERA<\/p>\n (RHP) Adam Wainright (STL) 13 \u2013 6, 2.51 ERA<\/p>\n Follow Travis for Pirates news and in-game updates on Twitter @TBerardi_OVA or @OVAthletics<\/p>\n (Photo Credit: Justin K. Aller\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PNC Park \u2013 Brandon Cumpton saved his best game of the year so far for the main stage as he went 7 innings of shutout ball in a Pirates 6 \u2013 0 victory over the Cardinals to sweep the twi-night doubleheader and take a 1 \u00bd game lead in the NL Central. Cumpton, along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[625,2182,2070,520,377,515,1116],"class_list":["post-15795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-brandon-cumpton","tag-gaby-sanchez","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-tony-sanchez"],"yoast_head":"\n