Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Bucs Eighth Inning Rally Dumps D-Backs 8-5

Someone should tell Kevin Correia that PNC Park isn't the home field, but just another NL ballyard.  He has his share of problems here, and they continued tonight.

With one away in the first, he gave up a bomb to Kelly Johnson, and walked the next batter, Justin Upton.  Upton was caught stealing, and that stemmed the D-Backs inning.  The Bucs went down without a peep against Daniel Hudson.

Correia dodged a bullet in the second, too.  After a one-out Juan Miranda knock, Arizona put on the hit-and-run.  Gerardo Parra did his part, softly lining a ball toward right.  But Josh Harrison stepped back, climbed the ladder, and turned it into an inning killing DP.

The Bucs took the lead in their half thanks to a crucial D-Back miscue.  McCutch walked and went to third when Miranda at first botched a Lyle Overbay ball, putting runners at second and third.  Chris Snyder whacked a sac fly to plate McCutch, and Ronny Cedeno came through with a big two-out single to bring Overbay home and put Pittsburgh up 2-1.

Both sides went quietly in the third.  Arizona got a runner to second in the fourth, and the Bucs added a run.  McCutch doubled - there is no stopping him this month - went to third on an Overbay fly, and came in on a Snyder sac liner to left.

It was a curious play - he looked like he was in despite a strong throw by Parra, but the plate umpire was ready to ring him up. Then at the last second, he changed his mind and said the catcher bobbled the ball.  Replay did show a bit of a snowcone, but...  The run counted, and it was 3-1 Pirates.

The Diamondbacks answered.  Correia struggled with his command, leaving everything up, and a homer, three singles and a double later, it was 4-3, and only after Xavier Paul made a nice running grab to close out Arizona. Cedeno tried to get the Bucs rolling with a leadoff double, but nothing came of the knock.

Danny Moskos came on and silenced the D-Backs, giving up a one-out single.  That's one more runner than Pittsburgh had in their half of the sixth. Evan Meek took the ball, and kept Arizona off the board though yielding a two-out double.  Pittsburgh again went down in order to end the seventh.

Meek wasn't as fortunate in the eighth; he surrendered a leadoff homer and two singles along with getting a pair of outs.  Chris Resop finished the inning with a K, but Arizona had a big insurance run and a 5-3 lead..  But the Bucs were ready to rumble against reliever David Hernandez.

Garrett Jones smacked a pinch hit double; Jose Tabata followed with one of his own to cut the lead to one.  After failing to bunt, Josh Harrison rolled a single up the middle on an 0-2 pitch, and just like that, the game was tied. The X-Man bunted, but the toss to second was late.  A McCutch walk jammed the sacks.

Overbay got ahead 3-0, and laced a 3-1 heater delivered down the middle into right center, scoring all three runners.  Emmerling Vasquez climbed the hill to calm the storm, but the Bucs were up 8-5.

Joel Hanrahan came out to close, and he did in style, putting Arizona down in order with a pair of Ks on filthy sliders in the dirt.  He's now 15-for-15 in the save department.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.  Tomorrow is a matchup of old running buds, Zach Duke and Paul Maholm.

  • Kinda miss the Phillie fans; there were only 12,378 in the yard tonight.
  • The Bucs were outhit 13-7, but five of those hits were doubles.

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