Going into the series against the Nationals, all of the talk was surrounding the Nationals two young superstars in the making; Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. However in the opening game of the series, it was the Pirates big off-season acquisition A.J. Burnett who took center stage on Tuesday night. That is, at first.
Despite the performance that Pirates fans were expecting of their ace, the Pirates wouldn’t hold on to earn him the win, but he was on board for one heck of a ride at PNC Park as the Pirates would win in walk-off fashion, thanks to a two-run home run by Rod Barajas in the bottom of the ninth inning by a score of 5-4.
Burnett, who gave up 12 earned runs in the first inning in his last outing against the Cardinals, came back with a vengeance after a tough start. In the third inning, Burnett gave up a solo home run to Wilson Ramos and then allowed a two-out single to Rick Ankiel to give the Nationals an early 2-0 lead. After throwing more breaking balls in the fifth inning, Burnett settled in and didn’t allow a hit the rest of the way.
“I was able to find my hook that I had in the past and it paid off,” Burnett said. “For us to bounce back with home runs by Cutch (McCutchen) and Jonesy (Jones) and Rod (Barajas) coming through with his first, it was a big night for everybody.”
Burnett had his way with the Nationals lineup, recording 10 strikeouts on just 93 pitches over eight innings. This is the 20th time in his career that he has struck out at least 10 batters.
“I found my hook in the fourth inning and it seemed like everything Rod (Barajas) put down was a 2,” Burnett said. “I’ve been around him long enough that I don’t shake it off very often.”
After trailing early, the Pirates bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth when Andrew McCutchen hit his first home run of the season. The home run came on his 95th at bat of the year. At this point last season, McCutchen hit five of his 23 home runs. Not to be outdone, Garrett Jones stepped up following back-to-back outs by Pedro Alvarez and Casey McGehee and hit his fourth home run of the season over the Clemente Wall.
The score would remain deadlocked until the eighth inning when Nate McLouth drew a walk as a pinch-hitter for Burnett. After McLouth advanced to third base following an error by Ian Desmond on a hit-and-run, the Pittsburgh Kid Neil Walker stepped to the plate. Walker lifted a fly ball to Harper in right field and instead of hitting the cutoff man, the 19-year-old committed a rookie mistake by showing off his cannon of an arm attempting to throw out McLouth at the plate.
After converting 45 of his past 49 save attempts dating back to last season, the Pirates called in Hanrahan out of the ‘pen. After a leadoff single by Ryan Zimmerman, former Pirate Adam LaRoche took Hanrahan deep to right-center to give the Nationals the 4-3 lead.
“No night is a good night to have it happen (blowing a save),” Hanrahan said. “The other guys battled back right there and battled for that run in the ninth inning. Rod (Barajas) was hearing the boos earlier in the game and came back to hit the game walk-off homer. It was pretty awesome.”
After a Casey McGehee fly ball took Harper to the warning track, Alex Presley came on for a pinch-single. Following back-to-back wild pitches by Henry Rodriguez, Pirates catcher Barajas came to the plate with a man on third and two outs.
Throughout the game and the season for the matter, Barajas has been booed in the majority of his at bats with his .133 batting average entering today’s game. But when he stepped to the plate in Thursday’s game, Barajas gave the fans something to cheer about as he hit his first home run of the season in walk-off fashion.
“It’s not what you want as a player,” Barajas said regarding the boos. “If they’re booing you, it means you are struggling. I was in a situation where I was able to put them back on my side and hopefully they will give me a little bit of leeway over the next couple weeks.”
While Thursday’s game is the highly-anticipated game of the series featuring Strasburg, the Pirates will return to action tomorrow night against Ross Detwiler (3-1, 1.59 ERA). Taking the bump for the Pirates will be Erik Bedard (2-4, 2.65 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET.
Photo credits: Getty Images
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