Brad Lincoln did a great job in his spot start, going six innings and giving up just a pair of runs while throwing just 80 pitches. He struck out three and walked just one to earn his third win of the season. The combination of Jared Hughes, Jason Grilli, and Joel Hanrahan closed out the final three innings. Grilli allowed two hits in his inning but got two huge strikeouts to get his eighth hold of the year.
The offense was quiet again but they did enough. Jose Tabata doubled to lead off the game and later scored on an Andrew McCutchen sacrifice fly. Rod Barajas homered in his first at bat and Pedro Alvarez drove in McCutchen from first to add the winning run in the sixth. Six hits total for the Bucs, which isn’t much, but they did what they needed to.
The Pirates ran into a couple outs in this game, which could have prevented the insurance run they needed at the time. Clint Barmes and Alex Presley were both caught stealing, and Barajas was cut down at third when Barmes tried to bunt him over after a lead off double. Clint Hurdle is not a popular man amongst Pirate fans after tonight.
The Pirates will go for the two game sweep and the four game winning streak tomorrow at 7:10. Kevin Correia against Josh Johnson.