Ever since sweeping the Royals and entering a tie for first place in the division, the Pirates have gone on a mine-slump losing four straight games. After wasting another great performance by their young ace James McDonald, their savvy veteran ace took the hill in Cleveland for the second game of the series. A.J. Burnett entered today’s game a winner of his past five starts and was looking to extend that to six, but ran into trouble in the first inning as Asdrubal Cabrera took Burnett deep to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Unlike past games however, the offense of the Pirates would respond.
Pedro Alvarez, who Clint Hurdle called out this past week due to his struggles, answered Cabrera with a solo shot of his own in the top of the second inning. The home run was Alvarez’s ninth of the season. After a Garrett Jones single would score Neil Walker, the Casey’s traded home runs as Casey Kotchman and Casey McGehee would each homer for their respective club to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead.
Looking to extend the lead for their starter, Alex Presley hit a home run in the seventh, McGehee drove in two with an RBI single in the ninth and finally, Alvarez hit his second home run of the game to cement the 9-2 lead and victory for the Pirates.
Although Alvarez has been struggling over the past five weeks or so, he is a streaky player. During his week and a half of domination, his home runs came in groups, so the Pirates and their fans alike have to be excited with what they saw today from the young third baseman.
Burnett improved his record to 7-2 and put himself into All-Star consideration by going 6.2 IP allowing two runs on just six hits. With the victory, Burnett became the first Pirates pitcher to win six straight decisions since Zach Duke did it in 2005 and the first Pirates pitcher to win six straight starts since Doug Drabek did it in his 1990 Cy Young season.
The Pirates and the Indians will complete their three-game set tomorrow as Brad Lincoln (3-2, 3.15 ERA) will take the hill for the Pirates and Jeanmar Gomez (4-5, 4.71 ERA) will take the bump for the Indians in the rubber-match. The game is scheduled for a 1:05 p.m. ET start.
Photo credits: Associated Press
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