Pirates Pitching Carries Team To Victory Over Reds

by Zane Heiple

Photo by Getty Images

For the second straight night the Pittsburgh Pirates road the back of their pitching to earn a victory.  Tonight the combination of James McDonald, Joe Beimel, Chris Resop, and Joel Hanrahan led the Buccos to a 1-0 defeat of the Cincinnati Reds.

McDonald had his best outing in quite some time going 6.1 innings allowing zero runs on four hits with seven strikeouts and three walks.  The bullpen stepped up in a pressure situation duringthe seventh inning.  After McDonald left the game with the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, Beimel would strike out Jay Bruce.  Beimel was then replaced by Resop, who would get Drew Stubbs to ground out to first to end the threat and inning.  Resop came back out to pitch a 1-2-3 eighth inning.  This allowed Hanrahan to come out in the ninth and earn his 28^th save of the year.
Reds pitchers had a pretty good night as well as Mike Leake, Nick Masset, and Logan Ondrusek allowed only one run over eight innings while striking out five and walking three batters. 

For as great as the pitching was the offense was just as bad.  Andrew McCutchen went hitless again tonight, but did drive in the only run during the first inning.  No batter in the lineup had more than one hit and five of the nine batters had zero hits.  These past two games show why the “so called” experts have a very good point when they mention how much the Pirates need to make a move for a power bat before the trade deadline if they plan on staying in contention for the National League Central Division title.

The final game of this series will take place tomorrow afternoon at 12:35pm.  Jeff Karstens will start for the Pirates, while the Reds will counter with Johnny Cueto.

Record vs. Reds:  7-1
Record vs. N.L. Central:  24-13
Record at Home:  25-22
Overall Record:  51-44

And…

As Always…

Let’s Go Bucs!!!