The story of the Pirates season thus far has been the extraordinary job the pitching staff has done and the dismal job the offense has done. As Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle has said, this team will go as far as the pitching takes them. The Pirates pitchers have been waiting for the offense to provide some offensive support for them. Tonight, when Jeff Karstens left after the first inning, the offense switched roles and put the team on their back against Cy Young runner up Ian Kennedy en route to a 5-4 win over the Diamondbacks.
Karstens, who made it through the first inning successfully and batted in the second inning, was pulled right after his at bat. Reliever Jared Hughes came on, prepared to put in some long innings with the Pirates bullpen being overworked during the road trip. It was reported later in the game that Karstens was suffering from right shoulder inflammation and will be examined on Thursday when the team gets back to Pittsburgh.
The Pirates offense finally clicked tonight as they scored five runs, tying their season high against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 8 and a season high 13 hits. Leading the way for the Pirates were the 3-4-5 hitters in the lineup, Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker and Garrett Jones. The trio went a combined 10-14 with 5 RBI, 4 runs and 1 home run – the offensive spark the team has been looking for through the 10 previous games.
McCutchen, who went 4-5 on the night, scored the first and second runs of the game off of RBIs by Walker and Jones in the first and third inning, before driving in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning scoring Alex Presley. Jones went 3-4 on the evening, winding up just a triple shy of the first Pirates cycle since Daryle Ward hit for it in May 2004.
With the early departure of Karstens, the Pirates bullpen had its work cut out for them. After Hughes pitched into the fourth inning, Tony Watson pitched 2.1 innings to get the Bucs to the seventh where Evan Meek pitched a one-two-three inning. Leading 4-3 in the eighth, the Pirates turned to Jason Grilli who gave up a game-tying sole home run to John McDonald.
With McCutchen bringing in the go-ahead run in the ninth inning, all fans, announcers and spectators expected it to be “Hammer Time” as it was presumed Joel Hanrahan would take the hill in the ninth inning. In what was a surprising move at first, the Pirates elected to go with Juan Cruz and the status of Hanrahan was unknown. Talks of pitch count Saturday and he had the flu were swirling around with no confirmation. Cruz came onto to record his fourth career save as he set the Diamondbacks down in order to preserve the victory.
After the game, it was announced the Hanrahan has a strained right hamstring and was made unavailable to use. With Hurdle having an excuse to not use Hanrahan, there were a few other head scratchers in the ballgame. First, sacrificing with Presley late in the game. More notably, was leaving Jones and Pedro Alvarez in to face the left-handed reliever Craig Breslow in the seventh inning up only one run. Even with Jones swinging a hot bat, the Pirates stranded runners on the corners with a chance to capitalize and create some distance.
All questioning aside, it was a big win for the Pirates as they look to take their first road series of the season tomorrow in the series finale against Arizona. Taking the bump for the Pirates (4-7) will be James McDonald (0-1, 3.86 ERA) as they will need him to go deeper than five innings tomorrow to get the bullpen some much needed rest. Opposing McDonald will be Daniel Hudson (1-0, 8.71 ERA) for the Diamondbacks (7-4). First pitch is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. ET.
Photo credits: Getty Images
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