Bucs Salvage Series, Earn Split With Braves

by Zane Heiple

Photo By AP

As if a four game series is not long enough, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves had two games go to extra innings and two delayed by rain.  Tonight’s game was the latter, and like the first game of the series that was delayed by rain, it saw the Pirates come out on top.  Tonight our Battlin’ Buccos won 5-2.

Kevin Correia continued his trend of pitching well on the road tonight as he picked up his 12^th win of the season going 6.1 innings allowing one earned run on nine hits, with three strikeouts and one walk.  Joe Beimel finished off the seventh inning and got the first two outs of the eighth before Joel Hanrahan stepped in and collected four outs to earn his 30^th save of the year.

After Atlanta scored in the bottom part of the first inning, Pittsburgh would tie it in the top of the second, when Kevin Correia singled home Lyle Overbay.  The Buccos took the lead for good in the fifth.  Andrew McCutchen would hit an RBI double and Pedro Alvarez would ground out to first allowing Garrett Jones to score from third.

The Braves inched closer in the sixth when Dan Uggla hit the ball to Ronny Cedeno.  Cedeno made a throwing error to first that allowed Freddie Freeman to score from second base.  Cutch would strike the final blow in the ninth inning by giving the Pirates two insurance runs on a home run to left centerfield.

This was a big win for the Pirates in what ended up being a very grueling series.  The proved that they were able to hang with one of the better teams in the National League and currently sit 1.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers.  The level of difficulty is about to get amped up on this road trip as the Pirates head north to take on in state rivals the Philadelphia Phillies in a three game set.  The Phillies maybe at the top of the NL, but they have lost three of their last four and two straight to the San Francisco Giants.  While Pittsburgh did take 2 of 3 from Philly earlier in the year, it will take a complete team effort to have this kind of success once again.  Game one is tomorrow night at 7:05 with Charlie Morton taking on Roy Halladay.

Be sure to check out www.fansfromthestands.com tomorrow night for coverage of the Pirates game and the Washington Nationals vs. New York Mets.  Chad and I will be on location in our nation’s capital giving you an inside look at Nationals Ballpark.

Record vs. Braves:  2-4
Record vs. N.L. East:  12-16
Record on the Road:  28-24
Overall Record:  54-49

And…

As Always…

Let’s Go Bucs!!!