PITTSBURGH — It’s early: Clint Hurdle’s favorite caveat. Even the season’s quarter-pole is still a few innings away.
However, make no mistake, the tables have turned. For years, the word around the National League was: Stay close to the Pirates, and, in the end, they will give it up. Too green, too thin, too insecure to know better.
That line, and the attitude and approach that go with it, now belongs to the Pirates. They wait for an opening for the upper cut, then they stick it to you.
It served them well again Wednesday night, when left-hander Wandy Rodriguez stuck to Yovani Gallardo long enough for the Bucs to get enough of an upper hand for a 3-1 victory over Milwaukee at PNC Park.
That’s right: the Bucs edged the Brewers for the second straight night. Please be wary of flying pigs.
It would be a stretch to say Gallardo got decked, however. The Milwaukee right-hander had the Pirates in his usual grip through five innings, allowing them only one hit. And his shutout string in PNC Park reached 23 innings before the home boys said, “Enough.”
The ultimate home boy, Neil Walker, got the Pirates on the board in the sixth inning with a two-run single after they loaded the bases loaded on Starling Marte’s double and walks of Andrew McCutchen and Gaby Sanchez.
“Bases loaded” being the operative phrase there. Walker’s video-game career numbers in that situation improved to 17-for-34 with the single that accounted for his first RBI since April 17 and gave Rodriguez a 2-0 lead.
Walker’s liner was also the Bucs’ first hit of the series in 24 at-bats with men in scoring position.
Rickie Weeks halved the lead in the next inning with an impressive solo shot just to the left of PNC Park’s faraway North Side Notch.
Rodriguez finished that seventh inning, then was finished. He allowed six hits and the one run, with one walk and five strikeouts, to become the Bucs’ first four-game winner.
He and Gallardo were serious about this stare-down.
The Bucs’ arm had by far the biggest challenge in the early going. While no Pirate reached third base against Gallardo until the breakthrough in the sixth, the Brewers got a man on that base with none out in the fourth.
Rodriguez was unfazed by Jonathan Lucroy’s leadoff triple. He calmly retired both Carlos Gomez and Weeks on infield popups, then got Alex Gonzalez on a grounder to short.
Jordy Mercer, the recent and once-again Pirates infielder, had the team’s only hit through five innings – a bouncer up the middle for a single to lead off the third.
MLB.com
