Octavio Dotel slammed the door on a 9th inning Chicago attempt at tying the score. It was another nail biter and the Buccos came out on top again.
Pittsburgh jumped onto Ryan Dempster feet first. In the first inning the Pirates used two hits and two walks to plate three. Dempster walked the first two hitters before allowing an RBI single to Andrew McCutchen. One out later, Ryan Church drove home a pair with a double.
After that Dempster settled in and retired 11 straight Pirate hitters before leaving the bases loaded in the fifth. By that time, Chicago had cut the lead to 3-2 courtesy of a two run, two out double from Aramis Ramirez.
It stayed that way until the ninth. Jeff Clement poked a solo homer off of Carlos Marmol for the all-important insurance run. Dotel took over in the home half of the 9th and walked super-rook Starlin Castro with one out. Kosuke Fukudome laced a triple to bring home one run and put the tying run at third base with just one out. Dotel buckled down and whiffed Ryan Theriot and Marlon Byrd to end it.
Maholm gave up 8 hits and two runs over six innings. He walked no one and struck out four hitters. Dempster only allowed four hits in his seven innings of work. But he walked five and gave up three runs.
The Good
McCutchen had two more hits.
Clement added a single to his homer.
The Bad
Aki Iwamura was 0-2 with a pair of walks.
The Rest
Dempster’s 9 Ks equaled his season high.
Maholm has not allowed more than four earned runs in any of his 2010 starts.
This was Clement’s third multi-hit game of the year.
Iwamura has one hit in his last 40 at bats.
Last Pirate player to have seven hits in consecutive games was Andy LaRoche on September 28 and 29 of last year.
