CHRISTOPHER PANSINO – OVATHLETICS.COM
The Pirates got off to an early 4-0 lead in the first inning. The offensive rally was a product of early struggles for Rangers starter Scott Feldman. Nearly the entire Pirate lineup got a crack at Feldman in the first inning.
Garrett Jones and Ryan Doumit would both score runs on RBI singles in the first inning and even Pedro would score some runs with his lone hit of the ball game on a two run RBI double to left.
But the Giants would chip away at the Pirates early lead scoring a run in the second inning off a Justin Smoak sacrifice RBI and two runs in the fourth on a pair of sacrifice flies by Cruz and Smoak.
The Pirates would add a run in the top of the fourth to make the score 5-3.
PirateÕs starter Jeff Karstens left the game in the sixth inning with score unchanged.
But that was not to last as Evan Meek, who came into the game with a 0.68 ERA, the lowest in the major leagues, blew the win for Karstens by giving up two runs in the seventh inning to tie the game 5-5.
Meek gave up just three hits, but did so to the first three batters he faced. The RBI triple by Michael Young and RBI single the following batter was the difference in this ball game. The Rangers bull pen shut down the pirates after the sixth inning providing just one last scoring opportunity in the ninth inning. However, with Tabata and Crosby on the corners with two outs Neil Walker hit a long fly ball that was a few feet short of a homerun and to high to fall in for an RBI single.
The Rangers capitalized in the bottom half of the ninth with some offense of their own, eventually scoring Elvis Andrus off a Vladimir Guerrero single to give the Rangers 6-5 win.
