Pedro Alvarez has had his struggles against left-handed pitching this season going 2-for-20 on the season, however his single helped the Pittsburgh Pirates score the game-winning run in a 3-2 victory against the Chicago White Sox.
This victory game the Pirates a major league leading eighth sweep of the season. They had five sweeps all of last season. The Pirates also earned its eighth consecutive win, a season high.
“We’re playing very good baseball,” manager Clint Hurdle said to assembled media members following the game.
Once again it was the Pirates scoring first, this time in the top of the fourth inning. Starling Marte reached first base on a force out and advanced to third base when Andrew McCutchen singled. Jung Ho Kang continued his run-producing from Wednesday night’s game, this time with an RBI single.
The White Sox got the run back in the bottom half of the inning. Jose Abreu led off with a double and tagged up to third base on an Adam LaRoche fly out. Abreu scored on a Melky Cabrera sacrifice fly.
In the fifth inning the Pirates loaded the bases with one out after Jordy Mercer and Corey Hart recorded singles and Chris Stewart was hit by a pitch. Josh Harrison’s sacrifice fly placed the Pirates in the lead.
The one-run advantage lasted until there were two outs in the seventh inning. It was then that Geovany Soto hit his fourth home run of the season. Off the bat, Pirates starter Gerrit Cole knew that it was a home run and placed his hands in the air as the 3-2 offering was right down the middle of the plate.
With a disgusted Cole still in the dugout stewing over the home run pitch, the Pirates attempted to win him the game.
Kang hit a one-out single off Jake Petricka [1-2] was followed by the Alvarez single off Zach Duke which advanced the Pirates third baseman to third base. Gregory Polanco had a RBI ground out that second baseman Gordon Beckham had one play on, a throw to first base because the ball was softly hit.
This allowed Cole to earn his major league best 11th win. In addition to allowing two earned runs, Cole allowed three hits while walking three and striking out four. Cole threw 106 pitches and 66 strikes. His ERA slightly went up from 1.71 to 1.78.
With Tony Watson unavailable for this game, it was Arquimedes Caminero who pitched the eighth inning and set the side down in order, good for his 11th hold of the season.
“He’s on a roll and he’s hard to hit, the average against speaks to that,” said Hurdle. “He’s throwing strikes and making people swing the bat.”
Mark Melancon once again pitched the ninth and earned his 23rd save of the season while striking out two batters in the process. Melancon came in to the game with a 0.54 ERA on the road this season and now ties Minnesota Twins closer Glen Perkins for the major league lead in saves.
In the contest, the Pirates outhit the White Sox by a 13-3 margin.
The St. Louis Cardinals lost for a second night in a row which means the Pirates are now four games behind in the race for the National League Central regular season title.
The Pirates conclude its road trip with a three game series against the Washington Nationals. In game one, A.J. Burnett [6-2 1.89 ERA] will face Joe Ross [1-3 3.46 ERA]. Burnett is 12-5 with a 3.19 ERA in 23 career appearances [22 starts] against the Nationals. In his last start, Burnett earned a no-decision against one of his former teams, the Philadelphia Phillies. He pitched nine scoreless innings allowed five hits. Normally this is a complete game, however the Pirates won the game in 11 innings.
Photo courtesy: Jon Durr/Getty Images
