Saturday, March 6, 2010

Sister Smoochin'

The Bucs and Phils took it ten innings, and in Grapefruit League reckoning, that's more than enough. They called it quits tied 3-3.

Kevin Hart walked four and allowed one hit in the seven Phillies batters he faced, and gave up a pair of runs in his single inning, saved from a complete trainwreck by a timely DP ball. Steve Jackson gave up the other run

The rest of the staff was sharp. D.J. Carrasco struck out two, walked one and allowed one hit in his two innings of work. Brendan Donnelly struck out two batters in his inning, and Jack Taschner allowed one hit and struck out the side in his frame.

Justin Thomas had a perfect inning, as did Jeff Sues, who notched a K. Donnie Veal and Jean Machi put up a goose egg, each yielding a hit.

Jeff Clement drove in the first run in the opening frame, doubling home Andrew McCutchen, who had singled and stolen second (McCutch was 2-for-2 with a walk, and 1-for-2 stealing). Ryan Church followed with a homer, the first of his two hits, and that was it for the Buccos.

Bobby Crosby made a couple of sweet plays at short, and the DP ball that saved the game was snagged by a diving Ramon Vazquez, who started the twin killing on his tummy from second base.

Oh, and plaudits to McCutch's mom Petrina, who the beat guys said did a bang-up job belting out the National Anthem to start the game.

Pittsburgh will host the Twins at McKechnie Field on Sunday at 1:05 PM. Ross Ohlendorf will make the start for the Pirates, and throw the first two innings, followed by Chris Jakubauskas, Vinnie Chulk, Justin Thomas, Bryan Morris and Virgil Vasquez.

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