Tonight was a tough one to swallow because of how well Paul Maholm pitched. He cruised through the first 6 innings not allowing a run before getting into a lot of trouble in the 7th. He couldn't finish that inning and ended up getting tagged with 4 earned runs. The bullpen was solid after that and the Indians finished with that many runs.
The offense battled back immediately in the bottom of the 7th when Neil Walker singled, Andrew McCutchen walked, Garrett Jones singled and Ryan Church brought them all in on a double to the gap. That left Church on second with nobody out, but the Pirates failed to score him and they didn't threaten again.
Pedro Alvarez added to his frustrating start to his career by going 0/4 with another strikeout.
So that all guides us to our second edition of the PIRATES WITH PEDRO OFFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT REPORT:
