Whew. Well suffice to say I did not see this coming following the Cards series. And it doesn't quite make up for the Cards series either. But it sure as hell was a step forward for the Pirates.
The Monday game I blogged about in the last post. What a game. One thing I wanted to mention about it though: I was listening to Buster Olney's Baseball Tonight podcast and they mentioned something about Monday's game I hadn't thought of. When Pedro Alvarez was facing Yu Darvish in the 7th inning of a scoreless game with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd, it was a matchup of the pitcher with the most strikeouts in the majors with one of, if not the most, strikeout prone hitters in the majors.
The count was driven to 2 strikes. And then Pedro hit his double.
On to Tuesday:
10 September - Pirates 5 Rangers 4
Tuesday was the Andrew McCutchen show. 3 hits. An RBI on each one. His third hit in the 9th drove in the Pirates' 5th run, an insurance run that turned out to be completely necessary. Francisco Liriano pitched well, bouncing back from geting rocked in Milwaukee.
The bullpen was very shaky. Grilli gave up a run in 2/3 of an inning and then Mark Melancon came in to save a 5-2 ballgame, that ended up 5-4 with the tying run on 3rd when it was all said and done. Very un-Mark Melancon-like, but he's be so utterly dominant that there's no reason to worry about one lackluster outing, especially when he converted the save.
There was a great moment when the game ended. Tony Sanchez delivered an emphatic fist pump after catching the last strike and out of the game, a third pitch strikeout of Adrian Beltre.
Melancon then gave a tiny fish pump of his own. It was the most animated you'd ever seen him, and he almost did nothing at all. You know it was a close call when Melancon has any reaction whatsoever.
11 September - Pirates 7 Rangers 5
Clint Barmes was the star in this one. He had a bases-loaded walk to put the Bucs up 2-0 in the 4th, and then a solo HR in the 8th, providing the insuring 7th run. Which was super helpful considering Melancon was out of commission for the day due to pitching in the two previous games. As a result, Hurdle had to call on Gomez and Morris (gulp) in key spots.
The 6th, 7th, and 8th innings were seesaw rollercoasters where the Bucs would jump ahead, and the Rangers would slash there way back to within striking distance. The 6th and 7th were the fault of A.J. Burnett, who started off the game brilliantly (getting 14 of the first 15 out, the perfecto being broken in the 5th) but just ran out of gas by the 7th. He ended up giving up 5 runs on the night when the bullpen couldn't stop the inherited runners from scoring.
Gomez relived Burnett and was shakey. With the score 6-5 in the 7th, Hurdle called on Morris to get the third out, and Morris gave up a long fly ball that was luckily tracked down in left.
How the Pirates dodged that bullet I'll never understand, Morris should really not have been used in that situation unless Hurdle's hand was forced, but he had other options.
Morris continued his appearance in the 8th and inevitable yielded a couple baserunners. Vin Mazzaro was able to navigate out from that mess. The bottom of the 7th and 8th made my head hurt. And I was dreading the 9th, with no Melancon on the horizon.
After Barmes' HR, making it a 2 run game, Kyle Farnsworth came in. I was bracing for the worst, but to my pleasant surprise he got a 1-2-3 inning. I hope Farnsworth is not a go-to in big situations most of the time, but if he can step up every now and then he could be a valuable asset in a tiring bullpen down the stretch (right now I only have two relievers I really trust, and those are Watson and Melancon).
And that's how the west (Texas is in the west, right?) was swept.
So that's it. Three nailbiters, all in different ways. Three wins. Head back home to for our last homestand of the year. We gotta take advantage of the Cubs and the Pads before the Reds come to town.
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