With the Pirates in their Memorial Day camouflage jerseys, they did their best to remain invisible to the Cubs, but instead, in true American fashion, the Pirates walked-off to victory in the ninth inning to take game two from the Cubs 3-2.
Leading the charge for the Bucs was center fielder Andrew McCutchen. After a leadoff single in the first inning, former Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm, now of the Cubs, decided to intentionally walk McCutchen in the third inning to put runners on first and second. The slumping Pedro Alvarez lined a single to score Jose Tabata from second base to give the Pirates the early 1-0 lead. A Neil Walker sacrifice fly would score McCutchen from third after he advanced on the Alvarez single.
While the offense struck in the third, it was the defense that really shined. In the bottom of the frame, an error by Pirates pitcher Kevin Correia put runners on second and third. The Cubs Starlin Castro hit a dribbler towards Alvarez at third. What happened then was purely instinctive as Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle put it.
“It is an instinctive play,” Hurdle said. “It’s a big league play. Rod (Barajas) has the presence of mind to cover home. I’m sure the last thing on Paul’s (Maholm) mind is that the throw would be coming home. Pitchers work on base running, but it’s not on the top of their list. Instinctively to grab that ball bare-handed and throw a rocket to home as he did – that was a big play for us.”
On the receiving end of the throw, Rod Barajas was impressed with the play by Alvarez.
“He made the only play he could possibly make and that ball got to me in a hurry,” Barajas said. “I was just surprised with how hard he threw that ball. How he got the velocity on that ball is a huge play. It’s something you can’t teach. It’s instincts.”
The Cubs would score two runs on an Alfonso Soriano sole home run and an RBI triple by Castro. With the score even at 2, the defense once again made an outstanding play to gun another runner out at the plate. After a walk to Blake Lalli, pinch-hitter Adrian Cardenas hit a shot down right field off the wall. Right fielder Josh Harrison hit the cutoff man Neil Walker, who fired a strike home to Rod Barajas to gun out Lalli trying to score.
“Runs are at a premium for us and when we have an opportunity to get those outs, we have to take advantage of them,” Barajas said. “On that relay throw, I knew we had plenty of time. When Walker made the throw, I was hoping I would get an easy bounce or a ball in the air and of course I didn’t get either of them. I just wanted to get down low and make sure I caught the ball.”
Hurdle was impressed with the pick by Barajas.
“The pick he made at home plate was a highlight play that kept the game in check for us,” Hurdle said.
In an already interesting game, it took another interesting turn in the ninth. After Joel Hanrahan retired the side in order, Jose Tabata led off the inning with a single. After Josh Harrison and Walker both walked to load the bases, recently called up first baseman Matt Hague stepped to the dish. Hague, who had the chance to collect his first walk-off hit and RBI, took a different approach as the 2-2 pitch from Rafael Dolis hit Hague in the ribs to win the game.
“Yeah it hurt, it got me right on my side fat” Hague said jokingly. “It wasn’t how I imagined it as a kid, but I’ll take it.”
Along with Hague, Hurdle said he didn’t see the walk-off happening this way, but he’ll take it also.
“We’ll take wins whenever we can get them,” Hurdle said. “It’s the third time we loaded the bases and you’d like to think it would be the last time we would load them and push the run across.”
For Correia, he pitched another solid outing giving up just two runs over 6.1 innings. No one was more happy with Alvarez’s defense than he was.
“Pedro Alvarez with that play at home after I threw the ball away saved me,” Correia said. “It would have felt pretty bad to have those runs score. He made a great play at home and on the other play at home, Rod did a good job blocking the plate and getting the guy out.”
After the big win, Correia said he and his teammates were excited to wear the Memorial Day jerseys to salute the troops.
“Everyone on the team is pretty excited to wear something like that to give some tribute to our troops and everyone out there,” Correia said.
The Pirates will look to sweep the Cubs who have now lost 11 game in a row when Erik Bedard (2-5, 3.52 ERA) takes the mound against Matt Garza (2-2, 3.72 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET.
Photo Credits: Getty Images
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