6/7 Recap | Pirates 5 Reds 4

The Pirates were able to take the series in Cincinnati tonight with a big 5-4 victory. After Joel Hanrahan blew a save in the bottom of the ninth, Clint Barmes and Michael McKenry had two huge hits for the Pirates which helped lead them to a win. Kevin Correia had a mediocre outing for the Pirates. He pitched five innings and allowed three runs on eight hits. Jared Hughes, Juan Cruz, Tony Watson, and Jason Grilli all did an outstanding job at keeping the game in the Pirates favor as there were no hits collected by the Reds off of those four. The Pirates would take a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, to see it get erased by Ryan Ludwick who hit his second home run of the game off of Joel Hanrahan, giving Hanrahan his second blown save of the season. Joey Votto led the bottom of the tenth off with a double off of Chris Resop. The Reds were unable to drive him in though, as Resop would strike Ryan Ludwick out looking to end the game, giving him his second career save.

The scoring was opened up for the Pirates in the fourth inning on a RBI double by Neil Walker. Garrett Jones had two RBIs that gave the Pirates the lead in the fourth and sixth inning and Michael McKenry had a sacrifice fly in the seventh as well. Clint Barmes led the top of the tenth off with a double off of Aroldis Chapman. Michael McKenry followed him up with a RBI double to the opposite field gap giving Chapman his first earned run of the year. It was the first two doubles he allowed on the year and Barmes hit was the first hit allowed by Chapman since May 12th.

Coming out of Cincinnati with a series win is an awesome thing and the Pirates are only two games back from the Reds, and two games over .500. They open up interleague play at PNC Park tomorrow with a weekend series against the Kansas City Royals.