Remember last offseason when Pirates fans started the hashtag, #EJaxtoBucs on Twitter? Pirates fans made it their mission to get Edwin Jackson in black and yellow. Jackson instead opted to sign with the Washington Nationals and signed a huge deal with the Chicago Cubs in the offseason. If Pirates fans could, they would probably take away the day that hashtag was born as Jackson has been horrible. Jackson entered play with a 1-6 record and a 5.76 ERA.
While the Pirates have a history of making really bad pitchers look good (Jeff Samardzija, anyone?), they didn’t fall victim to Jackson as they had his number en route to a 4-2 victory. Had it not been for a 1 hour and 47 minute long rain delay, the damage could have been much worse.
The Pirates went to work early as Andrew McCutchen drove in Starling Marte in the first inning following Marte’s single and stolen base. McCutchen came around to score on a Michael McKenry single to push the lead to 2-0 early on. Travis Snider’s hot streak continued as he tripled in the second inning to bring around Marte and came around to score on a McCutchen single. With an early 4-0 lead in hand, the Pirates bats went cold as the storm hit PNC Park.
The Cubbies struck for two runs on an Anthony Rizzo groundout and a Ryan Sweeney bloop single, but were unable to claw their way back into the game.
Jeanmar Gomez started the game, but due to the rain delay, he didn’t finish as the pitcher of record. That, instead, went to Vin Mazzaro who gave up two hits and no runs in his 2.1 innings pitched.
With the sweep of the Cubs, the Pirates have now won 11 of its last 13 games and sit 11 games over .500 on the season. The Buccos will travel to the House of Horrors in Milwaukee as they’ll take on the Brew Crew in a three-game set. A.J. Burnett (3-4, 2.57 ERA) and Marco Estrada (3-2, 5.44 ERA) will get the series started. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET.
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