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Game 159: Loss 103 Comes at the Hands of Bad Hands

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Not that Zach Duke was all that great. But it is tough to pull out a victory when three errors are made behind you and five unearned runs are scored.

It got off to a terrible start as Florida batted around in the first inning. Emilio Bonafacio singled to start the game. He swiped second, moved to third on a ground ball out and scored on a single from Logan Morrison. Dan Uggla walked and with two outs, Mike Stanton singled home Morrison. Wes Helms followed with a bases clearing double. Florida added another run in the second when Ronny Cedeno’s throwing error on a one out grounder from Uggla moved rookie SS Ozzie Martinez to third. He scored on a sac fly from Gaby Sanchez that woulda/coulda/shoulda been the third out.

Pittsburgh attempted to get back into it against Chris Volstad in the fourth inning. Jose Tabata singled and scored on Neil Walker’s double. Pedro Alvarez singled in Walker. But after John Bowker reached on a single, Cedeno hit into an inning ending double play.

Alvarez committed two errors during Florida’s four run fourth inning that put the game out of reach. Uggla had a two run double and Stanton popped a three run round tripper.

Florida piled on in the sixth against Joe Martinez. Sanchez singled and Stanton drove him home for his fifth RBI of the game. But the Pirates mounted a comeback. Volstad left after six innings and Cedeno hit a solo jack off reliever Brian Sanches in the seventh. Rookie Sandy Rosario made his second career appearance and didn’t retire a batter. Pittsburgh collected four straight singles (Tabata, Walker, Brandon Moss and Alvarez with an RBI), followed by a bases loaded walk to Bowker. Rosario was done. In came Clay Hensley. He gave up a bases loaded walk to Argenis Diaz, but otherwise kept the Pirates at bay in retiring the other three hitteres he faced.

Jeff Karstens tossed the eighth and gave up an RBI single to Sanchez to make it 11-6. But Pittsburgh wasn’t done. Jose Veras started the ninth, but he didn’t finish it. Tabata walked to lead off the inning. One out later, Moss doubled and Alvarez followed with a three run bomb. Leo Nunez entered and struck out Bowker and Alex Presley to end the game.

Duke was the loser, giving up nine runs (four earned) in four innings. He gave up eight hits and walked three. Volstad took the win for pitching six innings of two run baseball. He gave up six hits and struck out two. Nunez earned the save.

The Good
Alvarez drove in five runs. He was 4-5.

Brad Lincoln struck out the side in the seventh inning.

Tabata, Walker and Moss each had two hits, with Tabata scoring three times.

The Bad
Duke got hit hard.

Three errors.

The Rest
Duke is 0-5 in seven career starts against Florida. Volstad came into the game with an 0-2 mark and career ERA over 10.00 against the Pirates.

Alvarez has a ten game hitting streak in which he is 19-41 with 20 RBI. Tabata’s hitting streak moved to thirteen games.

Karstens made his first appearances since August 31st.

This was Stanton’s first career five RBI game.

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