PITTSBURGH — After the game in the Pirates clubhouse, Andrew McCutchen said it perfectly. “It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish.”
The start of the game for the Pirates didn’t look very promising. Lefty Brian Burres allowed two homers in the 1st inning to quickly see themselves trailing 3-0 before a chance to bat. But from two pitches, two huge swings of the bat, McCutchen picked up his second two homer night this season. The bullpen impressed and a pinch–hit RBI single in the 8th by Jason Jaramillo gave the Pirates a 5-4 victory over the Houston Astros at PNC Park on Wednesday night.
After retiring the first two Astros, Burres allowed J.D. Martinez to hit a single into left field. Carlos Lee followed by taking a 1-1 pitch into left field for a two-run shot. The next batter, Matt Downs, took the first pitch off the left field pole for a solo-shot.
It was the second time this season that the Astros have hit back-to-back homers. The last time came on May 30 at Chicago with Clint Barmes and Hunter Pence.
“Brian didn’t have a whole lot today,” Manager Clint Hurdle said. “The ball wasn’t coming out of his hand the same was it was at Wrigley. He gave us what he had.”
The first of the two long balls that McCutchen hit came in the bottom of the frame. He took the first pitch off lefty J.A. Happ for a solo-shot to right center to cut the lead , 3-1.
“It’s more of just knowing myself, knowing what I’m capable of doing and knowing that I can drive the ball that way,” McCutchen said. “And that’s what I did. That’s what I’m starting to do, starting to trust myself a lot more, let the ball travel and hit the ball the other way.”
The Pirates have now homered in five straight games –a season-high for consecutive games with at least one home run.
Burres struggled again in the 2nd inning. Clint Barmes hit a solo-shot off Burress –the fourth of the game and third off Burres– to take a 4-1 lead.
After issuing a single to Humberto Quintero, Manager Clint Hurdle went to right-hander Jared Hughes, who inherited runners on the corners with two outs in his Major League debut. But it was no sweat for the rookie. Hughes first pitch was a 92 MPH heater for a grounder back to the mound to end the inning.
Burres was charged with four runs on seven hits over 3.2 innings. He threw a wild pitch, and struck out two.
“I had some command issues, pretty much with all the pitches,” Burres said. “I left some kind of over the fat side of the plate. They got hit pretty hard.”
In the bottom of the 5th, the Pirates rallied off Happ to tie the game at 4.
“We really didn’t jump on him until that one inning,” McCutchen said. “We didn’t have too many hits off him…We were able to have a big inning off him and tie it up and get the win.”
Brandon Wood drew a pinch-hit walk and Alex Presley followed by hitting a single up the right side. With two outs, McCutchen took the first pitch for his second homer of the game, 22nd on the season, to tie the game at 4.
“That’s what you have to be,” McCutchen said on. “You’re not ready after the first pitch. You want to be ready every single pitch. That was my thought process, being ready. He threw me a couple fastballs and I was able to hit them out.”
That was his second two homer game this season (Also on May 10th against the Dodgers) and his third career two homer game.
“That’s just a grown man hitting the ball to right-center field that deep,” Hurdle said. “And then the ball he just mulled to left field. McCutchen lets it eat every time he’s up there. Sometimes you try to just encourage him to back off and try to hit a single. It worked for us tonight. He goes up there with bad intentions. It was a good night for him as well. It was a good team win. We stayed in it, we stayed after it.”
Clutch hitting proved to be the game winner in the bottom of the 8th. Three consecutive pinch-hit singles gave the Bucs the go-ahead run. Garrett Jones and Ryan Doumit each singled before Jason Jaramillo stepped to the plate. Since being recalled on September 1st, Jaramillo was 0-2 as a pinch hitter. But tonight he proved to the hero. He hit a RBI single up the middle to score pinch runner Chase d’Arnaud, the eventual winning run.
“Honestly I was just trying to stay as quiet as possible,” Jaramillo said. “It worked out. I got a pitch over the plate and put a good swing on it.”
“He threw me two really good breaking balls. He even threw me a third one in the dirt. So I was telling myself to make sure I saw the ball up.”
The bullpen, which consisted of Hughes, Daniel McCutchen, Chris Leroux, Tony Watson and Joel Hanrahan allowed just one hit over 5.1 innings of relief.
Leroux in particular has retired 17 straight base runners over his last four games.
“Leroux has really picked it up,” Hurdle said. “Since that last outing in Houston. I think it was four batters faced, four men reached base. I don’t think anybody’s gotten on base against him since. He’s been so efficient with his good hard sink. He’s spinning that slider very effectively. He’s been able to pitch to both the left-handers and right-handers very, very well. Just quick good work.”
“I’m very happy with our bullpen work today,” Hurdle said. “Everybody that took the ball, came in and was efficient, was effective, went right after people, had a lot of counts, put contact. It was what we needed.
Hanrahan picked up his 36th save of the season after pitching a perfect inning with one strikeout in the Pirates 5-4 win.
“If you get to finish it off with Hanrahan, you’re usually in a good place,” Hurdle said.
With the 5-4 win, the Pirates improve to 66-77 on the season. The victory, however, was perhaps a little bit more special to manager Clint Hurdle. It was his 600th career managerial win.
“It was a nice game to win,“ Hurdle said. “I don’t have many balls in my collection. I think the first one I got as a manager was my 500th. I’ll keep this one. This one has some meaning to it.”
Photo credit: Yahoo! Sports
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