Pirates Rally In Spite of Themselves To Take 4-3 Decision

Steven Brault filled Ivan Nova's shoes today and even gave an Ivan Nova outing - five innings, three runs, eight hits, two walks, a bopped batter. Ian Happ singled in a pair off him; Ben Zobrist chased home the other run with a sac fly. Steven did a good job of not letting the game get away, but he's going to have to get after guys here; he's looking a lot like nibbler Jeff Locke right now.

Brault needs a little more edge (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

But the Bucs were in it; J-Lup clobbered a 431' homer of Kyle Hendricks with Freeser aboard. After that outburst, it calmed down at 3-2. Frenchy LeBlanc came in and tossed three perfect frames. Hendricks took it into the seventh for Chicago when Carl Edwards Jr. bailed him out. But Edwards couldn't keep it up in the eighth. JJ walked, then Starling and Mad Max dropped bloops with Jaso scoring and Marte getting tossed out at third (ooops). A two-out intentional walk to J-Bell after a wild pitch set up a Freeser rap to give the Bucs the lead before Bell was thrown out at third (ooops again - that sound you hear is little league coaches spinning in their graves after the first and last outs were made at third base). Fortunately for the footloose Buccos, Felipe Rivero didn't need a safety net to put away the Cubs in the ninth; two whiffs and a 5-3 tied the bow.

J-Lup hit a big boy dinger tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

So hey, two in a row from the Chi-town Nine. Watching the kids at work and doing some spoiling while they're at it is kinda a fun way to pass September (remember when it used to be showtime for John Bowker, Jeff Clement and Joe Martinez?)

Notes:

• Cutch and Freeser had two hits, half of the Bucs' eight raps.
• The Cubs haven't been very clutch so far this series, going 2-for-18 w/RISP.
• Tonight's crowd: 14, 079.
• On the AT&T SportsNet Postgame show, Kent Tekulve announced that he'll retire at the end of the season.