It took more than a little while, but in the end I’m smiling. Jose Tabata knocked in Josh Rodriguez with two outs in the 14th inning to move the Pirates to 5-3. If you are keeping track, the club needs 77 wins for a season above .500. Rodriguez had walked with two outs off Franklin Morales – Colorado’s eighth pitcher of the game. Tabata followed with a high drive that bounced off the Clemente wall in right to score Rodriguez easily.
Ross Ohlendorf got in trouble early, settled in and then left prematurely with shoulder issues. He surrendered a two out, three run jack to Jason Giambi in the first inning. Giambi’s dinger followed a lead off walk to Dexter Fowler and a single from Jonathan Herrera. After getting the first two hitters in the third inning, Ohlendorf was done due to his injury. Jeff Karstens relieved and, trend-setting for the rest of the bullpen, kept Colorado off the board.
While Karstens tossed 3-1/3 innings of shutout relief, Pittsburgh scratched back into the game. In the fourth, Colorado starter Jorge De La Rosas gave up walks to Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen to start the frame. Two ground ball outs later, Walker scored with an RBI to Matt Diaz, his first as a Pirate.
Jose Tabata hit a solo homer in the next frame to make it a one run contest. Matt Belisle relieved De La Rosa in the sixth. He put together two outs and two walks (to Lyle Overbay and Pedro Alvarez) before uncorking a wild pitch that advanced Overbay to third. Jason Jaramillo delivered a game tying two out single.
After that, the scoring ceased until the 14th. Both clubs had more than one opportunity to take the lead.
– Colorado put a man on third with two outs against Michael Crotta in the seventh. But he retired Troy Tulowitzki.
– Pittsburgh had runners on 1st and 3rd with one gone in the home half of the seventh. But Andrew McCutchen popped out and Lyle Overbay grounded out.
– A Neil Walker strikeout in the ninth stranded Steve Pearce at third.
-Herrera doubled leading off the tenth against Chris Resop. He moved to third on a wild pitch but was unable to knocked in. Carlos Gonzalez lined out to Ronny Cedeno. One out and two walks later, Pedro Alvarez gloved a hot smash down the third base line from former Bucco Ty Wigginton and threw him out from his knees.
– Dexter Fowler delivered a one out single with one on in the eleventh. But he was retired trying to make his way to second. Herrera grounded out to end the inning.
– Errors by Ronny Cedeno and Garrett Olson put two on with no one out in the 14th. But Colorado again failed to come through.
Ohlendorf was charged with all three Rockie runs in 2-2/3. De La Rosa gave up two hits, three walks and two runs in five innings. Franklin Morales is tagged with the L. Olson picks up his first win in a Pirate uniform.
The Good
13 scoreless innings from the bullpen.
Pirate hurlers struck out 15 Rockies.
Carlos Gonzalez had a break out year last year. He was involved in the Colorado W yesterday (1-4 with two runs and two RBI). But tonight he was 0-7 with three whiffs and he left eight runners on base. Nice job thus far holding down both CarGo and Albert Pujols in the prior series. Now that I’ve committed this to ones and zeroes, I’m sure he’ll hit four home runs tomorrow.
Tabata and Jason Jaramillo each had two hits.
The Bad
Only eight hits in 14 innings. But it was enough to get it done.
The Rest
Pittsburgh was 4-8 in extra inning games in 2010. The longest last year was 14 innings.
Huston Street tossed three scoreless innings for Colorado. Hadn’t gotten more than seven outs in a game since July 10, 2005 when he was a rookie.
The walk to Rodriguez in the 14th was the first time he was ever on a Major League base path. The winning run was also the first time he scored in a Big League game.
It might be too early to scoreboard watch, but the Cincinnati’s loss tonight, the Pirates are just 1/2 game out of first.
Giambi’s homer was his first on the year. He and his brother have combined to hit 468 career homers, leaving them in fourth on the ‘most career homers by brothers’ list. They (and by they I mean Jason since Jeremy hasn’t played since 2003) need 40 homers to tie Eddie and Rich Murray.
