When in doubt, we'll start with the starting pitching. James McDonald pitched six strong innings today, giving up just two runs on four hits. He walked a pair and struck out three. One of the runs he gave up was on a poorly executed change-up that Hunter Pence drove over the left center field wall. McDonald told myself and some other reporters after the game that his pitches weren't "really good", but they were good enough to keep the team competitive. Clearly McDonald didn't pitch as well as he could have tonight, and he threw a lot of balls in the first two innings, but he really seemed to get it together and made it through six innings with just 82 pitches, which is a great sign.
The bullpen did a nice job as well. Jared Hughes gave up two unearned runs, although he did walk a pair which doesn't help the team. The error came on a sacrifice bunt that Michael McKenry fired towards Neil Walker covering first, Walker couldn't come up with the ball and the runners advanced and would both score later on. Hughes wasn't great in this game, so he's lucky those runs didn't hurt the ERA. Evan Meek had a one-two-three eighth inning despite maxing out at 93 miles per hour and not fooling anybody with his heat, more on that in a separate post coming up. Joel Hanrahan got the win in an impressive one-two-three inning with two strikeouts.
After scoring just two runs in their first 19 innings of the season, the Pirates pounded out 11 hits and five runs to get their second win of the season. Pedro Alvarez got the offense rolling with a huge home run that cleared the seats on the Clemente wall. He struck out twice today but that home run should help his confidence. Alvarez was pinch hit for in the 8th inning with runners on first and second and a left-handed Antonio Bastardo on the hill. Matt Hague came in and delivered his first big league hit which fell for a game-tying single. Before that, Casey McGehee and Alex Presley had RBI hits in the seventh to get the team within one. McGehee was two-for-two on the day with a pair of huge doubles.
That second double came to lead off the ninth inning. He was bunted to third by Presley, but stayed there when Jose Tabata struck out. However, Andrew McCutchen took it upon himself to drive in the winning run with a single off the centerfield wall.
Lots of positives today. McCutchen was 3/4 bringing his average up to .364, Presley and Tabata both got hits, the Alvarez home run was huge, McGehee had two doubles despite not starting the game, and most importantly - another good start from the rotation.
Pirates are back at it Tuesday night against the Dodgers when they face their third Cy Young Award winner in four games - Clayton Kershaw.