After an extremely rough week of baseball, the Pirates were able to snap their seven game losing streak with a win this afternoon. Solid pitching by Wandy Rodriguez and a couple home runs being hit helped the Pirates end their longest losing streak of the season.
Rodriguez had another very good start for the Pirates. He allowed three runs (one earned) and struck out four en route to his eleventh victory of the season. Tony Watson and Jared Hughes combined for a scoreless seventh and Jason Grilli pitched the eighth inning, while allowing one run. Joel Hanrahan pitched the ninth inning, allowed two runs, and earned his first save in nearly a month. Despite not registering a save/save opportunity since August 17th, Hanrahan is once again tied for the National League lead in saves.
The Pirates were able to strike first as Starling Marte was hit by pitch to lead off the game, and advanced to third after a wild throw on a pick off attempt to first. Garrett Jones was able to drive him in on a sacrifice fly. Andrew McCutchen hit a solo home run in the third inning, giving him his second in as many days, and 28th of the year, retaking the team lead.
The fourth inning rolled around and the Bucs hit Cubs starter Jason Berken pretty hard. Clint Barmes was able to reach second on a throwing error by third basemen Josh Vitters to lead off the inning. Three batters later, Starling Marte tripled him in, and Travis Snider immediately followed that with a RBI single. After a McCutchen single, Garrett Jones had a RBI double, scoring Snider, and giving him his second RBI of the day.
Clint Barmes hit his seventh home run of the season in the seventh inning, making the score 7-3.
Hopefully a solid win today can spark a hot streak for the Bucs. Had they lost today, they would have been sitting right at .500. Game three of this four game set will start tomorrow afternoon at 2:20 PM, with Jeff Locke searching for his first victory of the season.
Photo Credits: Associated Press
