Pirates Take Game Two, End Skid Against Brewers

by Zane Heiple

Photo by Getty Images

After being beaten easily in game one of the doubleheader, the Pittsburgh Pirates had little time feel bad for themselves, as they only had 30 minutes to prepare for game two against the Milwaukee Brewers.  The pitching matchup in this game looked to heavily favor Milwaukee as they would send former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke to the mound to take Brad Lincoln, who was making only his second start of the season.

The Brewers did not wait long to get on the board as leadoff batter Corey Hart took the second pitch of the game deep to centerfield.  With one out Nyjer Morgan would score from third when Prince Fielder reached safely on a fielder’s choice.  Pittsburgh answered with a run of their own, when Neil Walker brought home Jose Tabata with a single to left field that cut the Brew Crew lead to only one run.  In the fourth inning, Ryan Doumit tied the game with a solo home run to right center field.

Lincoln held his own tonight against a very formidable Milwaukee lineup.  He would go six innings allowing two runs on three hits with one walk and one strikeout.  Daniel McCutchen would replace Lincoln in the seventh and keep the Brewers off the board in an inning of work. 

The bottom part of the inning saw the Pirates open up the offense.  It all started with a Garrett Jones single and Matt Diaz being hit by a pitch.  With two runners on, Josh Harrison hit an RBI double to shallow left field.  With one out Andrew McCutchen would pinch it for D-Cutch and walk on a wild pitch that scored Diaz from third.  Jose Tabata then doubled home Harrison, which would be followed up by a Xavier Paul single that scored Cutch.  Ryan Doumit kept the hitting going with a bases loaded single that brought home Tabata.  Jones was up again and brought home another run with a sacrifice fly to the warning track to right field.  With Diaz at the plate a wild pitch would bring home Walker to bring home run number seven of the inning and give the Buccos a 9-2 lead heading into the eighth inning.

Recently called up Chris Leroux, who took the place of Kevin Correia on the 25-man roster after he headed to the DL today, finished off the last two innings to give Pittsburgh their first win over the Brew Crew in 2011.  This was a huge win for the Pirates since Milwaukee has owned them over the past few seasons.  It was great to see the Buccos capitalize on another teams mistakes and come up with a big inning like they did during the seventh inning tonight.  That being said though, Pittsburgh has two more games left with Milwaukee in this series and they don’t want to let the Brewers gain any momentum back after this win.  Tomorrow’s game will begin at 7:05pm with the Brew Crew starting Marco Estrada and Pittsburgh sending Ross Ohlendorf to the mound for his first start since early April.

Record vs. Brewers:  1-9
Record vs. N.L. Central:  29-27
Record at PNC Park:  30-36
Overall Record:  60-67

And…

As Always…

Let’s Go Bucs!!!