Friday, March 18, 2011

It Takes Three...

Three outs, that is, to end an inning. And the Bucs had trouble nailing that third out in losing 3-2 to the Phillies this afternoon.

Tuffy Gosewisch rolled a single past the infield, scoring two runs with two outs in the ninth off Chris Leroux to win it. Ben Francisco and Pete Orr started the inning with back-to-back bunt singles against an all minor league infield (Jeremy Farrell - Jordy Mercer - Josh Harrison - Josh Fields) to prime Gosewisch's game-winning bleeder.

To add injury to insult, Brad Lincoln was yanked after taking a shot off the right arm from the bat of Jimmy Rollins. He got the out, and then exited with what appeared to be nothing more than a deep bruise. The team will find out tomorrow if it's anything more serious.

Lincoln worked 2-2/3 innings and allowed one run on one hit and a costly free pass. A leadoff walk followed by a bunt and Rollin's ball move Michael Martinez to third, and he scored with two outs when Shane Victorino greeted cold reliever Chris Resop with a double.

The Pirates scored two runs in the third off Roy Oswalt when Corey Wimberly grounded home a run and John Bowker followed with an RBI double, chasing home Josh Rodriguez and Lincoln. Jose Veras and Mike Crotta tossed three scoreless frames to hold the Bucco lead into the ninth.

Steve Pearce threw out Jimmy Rollins trying to score from right field; John Bowker was also nailed at home.

The Pirates face the Boston Red Sox at 1:05 PM tomorrow at McKechnie Field in a game televised live by FSN Pittsburgh. Kevin Correia will start against Josh Beckett.

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