There’s just a feeling around this team in Pittsburgh this year that hasn’t been here in a long time. Last year, it was a good feeling, but was the sustainability factor really there? This team is different. This team has that “It’s about damn time” feeling. Even while trailing 4-0 to the Astros tonight, the feeling that this team was out of the game was never there. Look back as recently as last year with this team or hell, even two months ago, the feeling that they could comeback from a big deficit wasn’t there.
“We’ve got more guys in play that are playing well and hitting well,” Hurdle said. “Look at McGehee’s play at third the past two nights. There’s a bunch of different things going on that may sneak by people outside of the ordinary that are going on. There also comes a point in time when a group of men committed to one goal where no one cares who gets the credit can do some exciting things.”
Even when on paper it’s a game that the Pirates should win easily, such was the case tonight, nothing is guaranteed. Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said last night that he told his team that this was them last year. A team that everyone expected to beat.
“You don’t just walk out there and win if a team you don’t think is as good as you on paper,” Hurdle said. “I reminded the guys, before the series that we were rolled up and done at this point last year. All they have to do is go out and score one more run than us and they beat us. I reminded our guys, you have to take every game as significance up here.”
With Burnett on the hill against the lowly Astros; add in the way the team has been hitting lately, this looked like a guaranteed win. The resiliency of this team showed once again.
“I just like the way we hang together,” Hurdle said. “If we get in a tight spot, we just kind of hang in there and if we get underneath, we just kind of scratch and claw back. We just don’t let things get too out of control emotionally or physically.”
Erik Bedard said before the game that a pitching staff, nor an offense can carry a team by itself. He said as a staff, they now have the confidence that on a bad night pitching, this offense can make a comeback. They made Bedard’s words come true tonight.
As aforementioned, the Pirates trailed 4-0 going into the bottom of the fourth inning, but would slowly chip away at the lead with a two-run home run by Andrew McCutchen.
The Astros tacked on two runs in the top of the sixth, to extend their lead to 6-2. But again, the feeling that they were out of it just wasn’t there. In the bottom frame, Casey McGehee drove in McCutchen with a RBI single. Then Pedro Alvarez, who has missed the past two games due to a nagging cramp in his leg, stepped to the dish and delivered a two-run single up the middle with a full-count.
“I was just trying to put a good at bat together and produce somehow,” Alvarez said. “With a guy on third with less than two outs, I wanted to get a run in somehow, if not, I would have taken a walk. I was just going up there and not trying to do too much.”
To complete the comeback after a one-two-three inning by Juan Cruz in the seventh, Garrett Jones for the second consecutive night, hit a blast to right field that cleared the fence and gave the Pirates the lead for good — or so they thought. To show their appreciation, the fans were greeted with a curtain call by Jones.
“I don’t think I’ve every had one of those (curtain call) before,” Jones said. “It’s pretty special.”
The usual dynamic-duo of Jason Grilli and Joel Hanrahan looked poised to shut down the eighth and ninth innings, but Hanrahan would give up the game tying run.
“It was lack of execution,” Hanrahan said. “It was supposed to be a 3-2 slider and I didn’t really throw it hard enough. It just kind of spun up there.”
The Pirates would once again show resiliency in the ninth inning as newly acquired Drew Sutton stepped to the dish and hit his first home run since October 2010 to give the Pirates the win.
“I didn’t have Sutton with a right-handed home run to centerfield,” Hurdle said jokingly. “I didn’t have that. I was looking for a way to get a man on base and give Cutch a swing of the bat and he kept Cutch from getting up there.”
Sutton said he was happy to have the game be over.
“It’s just nice to be done,” Sutton said with a smile. “It’s 10:30, who wants to play extra innings.”
Sutton said hitting the walk off was an incredible moment.
“Every once in awhile you get a little moment and you better enjoy it because you don’t know when (you’ll get one again),” Sutton said. “It makes it much more sweet when you get here and have moments like these. You make sure and bookmark them on the computer to look back at them.”
With one of their biggest wins of the season in the bags, the Pirates will host the Astros for a special Fourth of July game tomorrow at PNC Park. Kevin Correia (4-6, 4.32 ERA) will take the mound for the Pirates as he opposes Dallas Keuchel (1-0, 1.35 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET.
Photo Credits: Associated Press
Discussion about this post