The Pirates moved to two games under .500 with a 10-6 victory over the New York Mets tonight. Wandy Rodriguez had a solid outing for the Pirates, only allowing three runs. He did allow back-to-back to Justin Turner and David Wright, but those were the only runs scored against Rodriguez. Chris Resop was touched up in the seventh inning, allowing three runs in only a third of an inning of work. Jared Hughes relieved him and was pitching when two of the runs scored, but they were still charged against Resop. Jason Grilli pitched a perfect eighth and Joel Hanrahan closed the game out with a perfect outing as well.
The offense got out to an explosive start in the first inning. After Gaby Sanchez had an RBI single to open up the scoring, Pedro Alvarez followed him up with a three-run home run to the opposite field. It was Alvarez’s 30th home run of the season, and he joined Andrew McCutchen as the two players on the Pirates this season to have thirty homers. All of the scoring came with two outs, and it was very nice to see the Pirates be able cash in with two outs.
After Wandy Rodriguez and Alex Presley reached base in the second inning, Josh Harrison drove them both in on a two-run, stand up triple. Garrett Jones drove a run in on an error in the second inning as well. Once the fifth inning rolled around, Alvarez collected his fourth RBI with a bases loaded walk, but the Pirates would only get one run in the inning, despite having the bases loaded and nobody out.
Garrett Jones collected his 25th home run of the season, a two run opposite field no-doubter, in the top of the ninth inning, which made the score 10-6. His home run made it the second time in Pirate franchise history that three players had at least 25 home runs throughout the regular season. The only other time was 1966, with Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, and Donn Clendenon.
Despite posting more runs than hits, the offense looked like it did in June and July. They look for the series win with a 7:10 PM start tomorrow.
Photo Credits: Associated Press
