Pirates vs. Diamondbacks, Game 6

The Pirates played some terrible baseball Thursday and Friday, but bounced back nicely Saturday. John Russell made the call to move Daniel McCutchen's season debut back a day to get Zach Duke in the game to match up against Diamondback's ace Dan Haren. Duke's outing was not terribly impressive when you look further than the box score, but he did a good enough job and got lucky enough to get his 2nd straight win. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 earned runs on 4 hits. It was sure nice to get those 7 innings, giving the bullpen a little break after they have been seeing a lot of action in this first week. Jack Taschner, Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez, and Octavio Dotel combined to pitch the last 2 innings, giving up one run (which was charged to Taschner, who faced only 2 batters). Dotel pitched a perfect 9th and got his first save as a Pirate.

The offense came largely off of 2 home runs by Jeff Clement and Akinori Iwamura. Clement's home run was good to see, especially coming off of Dan Haren. Let's hope his power can continue to develop and he can do some damage for the Bucs this year.

It was an all-around well played game for the Pirates, hopefully it got some of their confidence back they had after starting 2-0. Today the Pirates play the rubber match with the Diamondbacks, trying to win their 2nd straight series to open 2010. Here's the deets:


Pittsburgh Pirates (3-2) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (3-2)

8:10 PM, Chase Field

Daniel McCutchen vs. Edwin Jackson

Pirates Batters vs. Edwin Jackson
Ryan Doumit: 0/4, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 0 K
Bobby Crosby: 0/3, 1 BB
Jeff Clement: 0/3, 0 K
Akinori Iwamura: 1/3, 0 K

No Diamondbacks batters have ever faced Daniel McCutchen.



LET'S GO BUCS!