Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Bucs Win In OT 3-2

Another beautiful night for baseball, and what better way to kill a summer Wednesday evening than to watch two old buds, Paul Maholm and Zach Duke, go after one another?

PM gave up a two-out walk for the only damage in the opening at-bats.  Jose Tabata and McCutch singled around an out, but the inning was short circuited when JT tried to steal third; he was out by a mile.

Nothin' was cooking for the D-Backs in the second.  With one out Chris Snyder singled up the third base line; the ball caught the railing and bounced nicely to Xavier nady in left, who threw out the big catcher as he tried to take two.  To add insult to injury, he hobbled into the dugout, done for the night with a lower back problem, a long-time nemesis.  It hurt a little more when Lyle Overbay followed with a double.

Maholm kept dealin' in the third, cutting down Arizona; he had seven in a row gone at this point.  The Bucs finally took advantage of their hit parade.  Tabata singled, and Josh harrison rolled a hit-and-run knock through the infield to put runners on the corners.  McCutch drove a fly deep to left, and JT jogged in to give Pittasburgh a 1-0 lead.

Arizona made some noise in the fourth.  Melvin Mora was nicked on the jersey by a pitch, and an out later, Chris Young lined a knock to put D-Backs at first and second.  PM came back to get a pop and K to keep Arizona off the board.  It was more bad breaks for the Bucs.

Matt Diaz led off with a single, but with a hit-and-run on, Dusty Brown lined one to first for the easy DP.  Overbay walked, and Ronny Cedeno drilled one to the Notch.  It would have scored Overbay easily, but bounced into the bullpen for a ground rule double, and Maholm rolled out to end the frame.  Duke had surrendered eight hits in four frames, but only one run.

Henry Blanco drew a one out walk in the fifth; that was all the Arizona action.  The Bucs got McCutch aboard on a throwing error, but that was it for them.  Young drew a two-out walk in the sixth; the Pirates went down in order.

That was it for Maholm; the heat and 94 pitches did him in.  He went six shutout innings, giving up a hit, three walks, a bopped batter, and four Ks.  Resop had a clean inning of walk, striking out a pair.  Duke continued his strong second half work, allowing a two-out Tabata single.  It was Jose Veras' time to take the hill.

It was bad Jose today.  He walked Kelly Johnson on four pitches, who was bunted to second, and gave up an 0-2 single to Stephen Drew to tie the game.  He followed by plunking Justin Upton hard between the numbers, and that got him the Hurdle hook.  On came Anthony Watson for his big-league baptism.  he went 3-2 on both Chris Young and Juan Miranda; he got 'em both swinging.

Aaron Heilman worked the eighth for 'Zona; he gave up back-to-back lasers to McCutch and Neil Walker; Drew and Miranda both made diving snags to save his bacon (Walker's, up the line, was ruled foul).  Hanny pitched a clean ninth; Esmerling Vasquez almost matched him, surrendering a soft two-out knock to Brandon Wood.

Danny Moskos worked the tenth.  Johnson fought him off, fouling several pitches, before rolling a soft single up the middle.  He was bunted over - Moskos may have had a play at second, but took the sure out at first - and it may have cost him a run.  Drew lined a 1-2 knock into center to score Johnson and put Arizona up 2-1.

JJ Putz came on to close it out, and after striking out Xavier Paul was two outs away.  But McCutch rapped a ground rule double that hopped over the right field railing, and The Pittsburgh Kid shot a single up the middle to extend the game into the eleventh.

It was D-Mac's turn on the hill.  Xavier Nady started with a bloop double that a sliding McCutch couldn't come up with, and Henry Blanco followed with a knock into right to put runners on the corners with no outs.  McCutchen got Ryan Roberts swinging, and Johnson, with the infield in, drilled a grounder to Overbay, who bailed D-Mac out by starting a 3-6-3 DP.

Joe Patterson climbed the hill for the D-Backs.  The lefty K'ed Overbay with five straight hooks, getting him swinging.  Then Kirk Gibson called on righty Micah Owings to take over.  Cedeno popped out as Nady, now at first, reached into the first row to snag a foul.  Brandon Wood and JT banged back-to-back two-out singles, but Paul flew out softly to center; it was on to the twelfth.

McCutch stayed on; Geraldo Parra led off with a ground single to right.  he stole second, under a high tailing throw by Dusty brown with two outs, and got to third on a wild pitch that got through the catcher's wickets.   D-Mac got Sean Burroughs on a soft fly to left to dodge a couple of more raindrops.

Zach Kroenke toed the rubber.  McCutch worked the count full, and then yanked his tenth long ball of the year just inside the left field foul pole for his third career walk-off hit.  It was a long night, but the OT paid off.

Josh Collmenter will face Jeff Karstens tomorrow night.  JK, btw, was the emergency reliever in the bullpen tonight.  

  • Jose Tabata collected four knocks tonight; it was his second four-hit game, the other being on April 15th against the Reds.
  • The Pirates outhit the D-Backs 15-to-7, but both stranded a dozen runners.  The Bucs lost some guys on some shaky baserunning, while Arizona bulked up with six walks and two beaned batters.
  • Pedro reinjured his quad during rehab; he's going to be shut down for at least a week.  He could well be out until after the All-Star game.
  • Tony Watson's dad and sister drove 15 hours from Iowa after he was called up; they got to see him work tonight and get his first MLB K before taking off for home tomorrow.
  • Rob Biertempfel of the Tribune Review tweeted that the Bucs may have interest in DFA'ed Oriole catcher Jake Fox, especially if Chris Snyder's injury requires a trip to the DL.
  • Here's who the Bucs drafted, as listed on MLB.com's Draft Tracker.
  • Andy LaRoche was outrighted to Sacramento by the A's; no one claimed him after he was DFA'ed.

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