Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Prince Pounds Pirates

Hey, last night's storyline was pretty simple. Walk the guy in front of Prince Fielder and watch him hit a home run. Fielder went deep three times, twice with Ryan Braun on base via a free pass, to lead the Brew Crew to a 6-4 victory over the Bucs. Ricky Weeks added the other run when he crushed a solo shot after Fielder in the second.

Ohlie went five innings and gave up four runs on five hits, three of which went yard, along with three walks, a bopped batter and three Ks. Jared Hughes took the loss when he walked Braun and gave up Fielder's 38th dinger on an 0-2 pitch in the seventh. Up until that point, the Bucs kept battling back.

Pittsburgh took an early 1-0 lead in the second when The Pittsburgh Kid doubled and scored on a Matt Pagnozzi blooper. They added on in the fifth when Ronny Cedeno doubled and came in on Ohlie's slug bunt; he showed bunt, pulled back and chopped a single up the middle. He would later come in on Josh Harrison's one-out knock.

Walker scored the Bucs final tally when he came across on Alex Presley's bases-loaded walk in the sixth. LaTroy Hawkins, Francisco Rodriguez and John Axford kept the Pirate bats quiet at the end, giving up one hit over the last three frames.

Zack Greinke goes against Jeff Locke in the regular season finale. The game starts at 8:10 and will shown on Root Sports. Greinke will go as long as he can, as the Brewers are only one game up on the D-Backs for home-field advantage in the playoffs.

  • The last player to smack three homers against the Bucs in a single game was Albert Pujols in 2006. It was the first 3-homer game of Fielder's career. Even more notable is that Prince will play in all 162 Brew Crew games when he jogs out to first tonight. He played in every 2009 contest, and would have last season except for a September bug.
  • The Bucs picked off two Brewers - Jason Jaramillo's snap throw got Corey Hart at first, and Tony Watson caught Carlos Gomez napping at second.
  • Clint Hurdle told the beat gang that he plans to winter in Pittsburgh, and that he'll be involved in the instructional league after the season, though mostly as an observer, to get a feel for the young guys.
  • Ronny Cedeno said he was going to play winter ball in Venezuela.
  • Alex Presley and Josh Harrison will spend a few days in the Instructional League after the season; Mike McKenry may join them.
  • The Pirates will finish fourth in the NL Central this season, their highest position since 2003.

No comments: