The Pirates were three outs away from giving Homer Bailey his sixth career win against Pittsburgh. But they rallied against Francisco Cordero. Cincy took it in the 12th with a walk off, broken bat grounder from Jonny Gomes.
Chris Snyder homered in the third inning to give Pittsburgh a one run lead. That was the only scoring they would do off of Bailey who whiffed nine and walked none while allowing just five hits in seven innings.
The Reds only scored in one inning off Paul Maholm. Unfortunately, they scored three times in the bottom of the third. Chris Heisey reached on an HBP and scored on a two out double high off the wall from Scott Rolen. Gomes walked and Drew Stubbs went the other way on a single to right to score Rolen. Paul Janish brought in another with a single. Other than that, Maholm only gave up three hits (none after the third inning) and struck out eight over seven frames.
Pittsburgh got to Cordero right way. Andrew McCutchen singled and stole second. Jose Tabata singled him in. Neil Walker singled and Tabata stole third. Pedro Alvarez singled to knot the score. Arthur Rhodes was called in to douse the flames, which he did.
In the 12th with Wil Ledezma pitching, Heisey reached on a bunt single. Joey Votto was HBP. Joel Hanrahan was called on. Rolen singled, bringing up Gomes. His broken bat roller was fielded by Ronny Cedeno. He fired to home, a little low, to Chris Snyder, who dropped the ball for an error, allowing Heisey to score with the winning run.
Ledezma took the loss. Jordan Smith got the last two outs in the visiting half of the 12th for the win.
The Good
Maholm deserved better.
Walker extended his hitting streak with his ninth inning knock.
Tabata had two hits and stole two bases.
The Bad
Bucs whiffed 11 times and walked just once.
The Rest
Maholm remains 6-4 against the Reds. Bailey is still 5-0 against Pittsburgh.
Chan Ho Park tossed two scoreless innings of relief and has given up just one earned run in his last eleven appearances.
John Bowker was retired as pinch hitter and remains hitless as a Pirate. This reminds me of when the Pirates acquired Jose Gonzalez from LA. Gonzalez was 0-28 for the Dodgers when the Pirates got him on 7/3/1991. Gonzalez then went 2-20 for Pittsburgh before being waived. Hopefully better things are in store for Bowker.
