The Pirates fell to the Mets tonight 3-2. James McDonald and RA Dickey both had fantastic outings but JMac was unable to get the victory due to the lack of offense brought to the plate by the Pirates.
McDonald's final line was seven innings pitched, one run on four hits, while striking out eight. He looked dominant once again but was unfortunately not helped out by his offense. Juan Cruz picked up his first loss of the season and didn't get any help from the offense. He allowed two runs in the eighth inning, the same inning Andrew McCutchen misplayed a ball in centerfield and Pedro Alvarez had an error at third base. Chris Resop had a scoreless outing.
The Pirates got on the board in the sixth inning after Josh Harrison scored on a sacrifice fly by McCutchen. Harrison kept his hot bat alive with a double and triple. Jose Tabata scored as well in the eighth on a dropped ball in the outfield by Mets second basemen Daniel Murphy. Cutch was credited with an RBI on the play, but the ruling of the hit could have gone either way. Frank Francisco set the Pirates down one-two-three in the ninth to preserve a win for the Mets, and end another one-run game for the Pirates.
The rubber match of the series is tomorrow at 12:35 PM.