Awesome game tonight. The Bucs mashed the ball in Cleveland, and picked up right where they left off tonight against a pretty bad Twins team. Tonight was also Ryan Doumit‘s return to PNC Park.
Josh Harrison kicked off the scoring in the first inning with a bizarre home run. The ball hit off the wall, then deflected off Josh Willingham‘s chest, and then into the stands. By rule, that’s a home run and it was 1-0 Pirates. Through five innings, Kevin Correia got ten groundball-outs and was pitching well to contact, but his pitch count was getting high.
Casey McGehee put the Bucs up 2-0 with a fifth inning sac-fly, but the Twins started to make a push in the sixth. Correia gave up a one-out walk to Ben Revere, and a single to Willingham. That was it for Kevin, who exited the game at 97 pitches. Tony Watson came out in relief and did was he’s done all year. After loading the bases with a walk, he got a flyout and strikeout to keep the Twins off the board, and close the book on Correia.
The offense really got going in the bottom of the sixth. Pedro Alvarez led off with a single, and Clint Barmes drove him in on a double to right-center. After a pitching change, pinch-hitter Matt Hague made it 4-0 with an RBI-single.
Denard Span drove in the only two Twins runs in the seventh on a two-run homer off Juan Cruz, but Andrew McCutchen got those two runs right back with a towering shot to LF. Pedro doubled off the left field wall later in the inning (off of a lefty), which put runners on second and third. Rod Barajas tacked on another run with a sac-fly, and the Bucs took a 7-2 lead.
Chris Resop closed out the game with two scoreless innings, and actually drew a walk when he batted in the eighth. Cutch doubled when Resop was on first, and it looked like he could score. Unfortunately, Nick Leyva held him up at third, which was probably the right move.
Some interesting stats:
- The win marked the first time the Pirates have scored 7 or more runs in three straight games since 2009.
- Clint Barmes went 3-4 with an RBI, and cracked the Mendoza line.
- Cutch is now hitting .468 against LHP. That’s absolutely incredible.
- The Bucs showed some aggressiveness on the basepaths tonight, swiping three bags including a double steal between Cutch and J-Hay. That’s 45 total steals for the team this year.
Pirates (35-31) – Twins (26-40)
Win: Correia (3-6)
Loss: Scott Diamond (5-3)
Go Bucs
