The Pirates hit three homers and took a 7-4 lead into the seventh inning. Milwaukee rallied to tie it and emerged victorious in extra innings. If this were a good club, this would be a win they’d have to have.
Jose Tabata continued his hot hitting with a solo homer in the first inning off of Chris Capuano. Zach Duke failed to hold the Brewers back. He gave up a lead off double to Rickie Weeks, hit Corey Hart and walked Ryan Braun. Casey McGehee’s grounder tied the score and Lorenzo Cain had a two out single to put Milwaukee up by one.
The Pirates took the lead back in the second. Andrew McCutchen received a bases loaded walk with two outs. Tabata followed with an infield single, making it 3-2 Buccos. Pedro Alvarez singled and Ronny Cedeno walked in front of Chris Snyder’s three run homer in the third inning.
Milwaukee got one back in the fourth on a solo homer from Prince Fielder. Capuano was pulled in favor of Manny Parra and he was effective in limiting the Pirates to just one hit and no runs over the next three innings.
Jonathan Lucroy helped shorten Duke’s outing by homering in the fifth. He was replaced by Sean Gallagher with a man on and one out. Gallagher whiffed both hitters he faced to end the threat. Pittsburgh extended the lead to 7-4 when Neil Walker homered off Mike McClendon in the seventh.
Gallagher gave up a lead off hit to Ryan Braun in the home half of the seventh. Brian Burres came on and was met by a two run homer from Fielder, cutting the lead to one run. Exit Burres, enter Chan Ho Park. The Pirates were unable to hold the lead. McGehee singled and was erased on a fielder’s choice from Cain. He stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a two out error from Pedro Alvarez.
The Pirates had Ryan Doumit at second with one out in the eighth inning after he singled and was bunted over. They failed to score him. Tabata led off the ninth with a double but was also stranded.
Wil Ledezma pitched a scoreless tenth, but he was unable to do the same in the 11th. Braun singled to start the inning. Walker’s error on a smash from Fielder put runners on first and second. One out later, Cain singled in the winning run.
Duke went 5-1/3 and gave up four runs on nine hits. He struck out one and walked one. Capuano’s brief outing lasted three innings. He gave up six runs on six hits. He whiffed five and walked three.
The Good
Tabata and Walker each had three hits.
Snyder had homered in consecutive games.
Three homers.
The Bad
Blowing a lead late
Defensive lapses that aided the tying and winning runs.
The Rest
Duke remains 4-7 agaisnt Milwaukee. Capuano is still 3-6 against Pittsburgh.
At 43-86, the Pirates need to go 18-15 in the final 33 games to prevent a 100 loss season. They are 3.5 games behind Baltimore for the worst record in the league.
Garrett Jones was 0-4 and his post All-Star break batting average rests at a LaRoche-like .185. He hit eleven homers before the break and has nine after. Other than that, it’s ugly. His mark for the full season is .245/.304/.414 and his OPS+ is less than 100.
Bucs whiffed 13 times for the second consecutive game. They have double digit whiffs in 27 games.
This was the seventh time this year the team hit three homers in a game and the third time this month. The team is 5-2 in such games.
This was just the 13th time the club scored seven or more runs in 2010. They are 19-2 in games in which they score at least six runs.
