After being swept by the lowly Padres earlier this week, the Pirates were hoping a day off and returning home would bring them back to their winning ways. What better way for Wandy Rodriguez to earn his first win as a starter with the Pirates than to start this home stand off the right way.
Rodriguez held up his end of the bargain, but unfortunately, the bullpen didn’t hold up their end.
“He got put in the blender tonight. We’ve all been put in the blender these past two weeks,” Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle said. “We just have to keep trusting each other, keep backing one another up and keep playing.”
Rodriguez gave up two runs in the second inning when Corey Hart hit a double to drive in Aramis Ramirez and Lucroy singled in Hart to give the Brew-Crew a 2-0 jump. While two errors in the inning by Clint Barmes didn’t help the Pirates, it was the way that the inning ended that kept the Pirates in the ballgame.
With the bases loaded and no one out, Rodriguez struck out his opposing pitcher Mike Fiers and then got leadoff hitters Norichika Aoki to ground into the rare 1-2-3 double play.
“In that situation, I was looking for a double play and made a very good pitch,” Rodriguez said. “He hit it back to me and I did it.”
The Pirates offense made an appearance in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jose Tabata and Travis Snider collected the first hits of the evening for Pittsburgh with a single and double respectively. Andrew McCutchen stepped to the dish and drove in both runners for RBIs 77 and 78 on the season.
After recording two outs in the seventh, Hurdle decided to pull Rodriguez in favor of Jared Hughes. In hindsight, Hurdle may have picked another option.
Hughes plunked Rickie Weeks and walked Ryan Braun consecutively to load up the bases. Former Pirate Aramis Ramirez went opposite field with a double that McCutchen just missed to clear the bases.
A Hart single would push the lead to 6-2.
“Unfortunately, we (Hughes) hit the first guy in and we yanked a bunch of balls to the left side. You walk a guy and in five pitches, you go from a runner on first with two outs and trying to just get one out (to loading the bases),” Hurdle said.
Despite the rough outing, Hurdle defended Hughes.
“If you’ll check the young man’s track record, he’s probably pitched as well as anybody we’ve got out of the ‘pen,” Hurdle said. “This man has been very instrumental and doing a lot of good things for us in various roles out in the bullpen. The numbers speak for themselves and the inherited runners that haven’t scored, if you’ll look at those numbers, have been impressive as well.”
Trying to save face, Rod Barajas hit his ninth homer of the year in the seventh inning to pull the Pirates within three runs. The Pirates were able to mount an attempted comeback as they had two on and none out following a RBI single by Neil Walker. After striking out Pedro Alvarez and Jeff Clement in order, Michael McKenry snapped a 0-21 skid with an RBI single up the middle to pull the Pirates to within one.
Ron Roenicke pulled Axford and went with Kameron Loe who struck out Gaby Sanchez to end the game.
The struggles continued for the Pirates with their bullpen, but Hurdle was very pleased with Rodriguez’s outing.
“Tonight, we saw the ball down and the better sharp breaking ball,” Hurdle said. “He had better command, location, pitched inside effectively and gave us a chance to win the game. Hopefully, this is something he can build off of. He pitched with much more confidence and was more in control of his game.”
Overall, Rodriguez was satisfied as well with his performance.
“I feel very good tonight and had better location,” Rodriguez said. “I feel more comfortable with my location. In my seven innings, I felt good and the manager decided to go out to the bullpen. I respect that decision because he’s the manager.”
With the Dodgers close to acquiring Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto, the Pirates window is closing. With 37 games left on the ledger, they need to post a 15-22 record to guarantee they break the 19 years of losing.
Looking to snap the four-game skid tomorrow will be Jeff Karstens (4-3, 3.79 ERA) as he opposes Shaun Marcum (5-3, 3.39 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET.
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