Final Score: Pirates 8 Cubs 7
Why The Pirates Won: The bats came out of their slumber to score 8 runs on 11 hits to go along with 3 walks. Recent call up Shawn Ross, who has a career minor league batting average of .188 hit a big 2 run home run in the bottom of the 2nd to get the Pirates rolling. Earlier in the inning Esmerlyn Valdez hit a solo homer to tie the game 1-1. Ryan O’ Hearn hit the big blast in the bottom of the 3rd, a grand slam to give the Pirates a 7-1 advantage. In the bottom of the 5th Valdez drove in the 8th run which proved to be the deciding run. The trio of Braxton Ashcraft, Carmen Mlodzinski and Mason Montgomery came close to blowing the lead. Combined they gave up 7 runs on 12 hits while walking 2. However the Pirates held on to avoid a disastrous sweep and keep the wild card a distinct possibility.
Key Moments Of The Game: You cannot over emphasize how big the 2 run homer by Ross was. There were 2 outs when he took a 3-2 cutter and drilled 438 feet into the left field seats. After giving up 3 runs in the top of the 4th Ashcraft really settled down to retire the side in order the next two innings. In the top of the 8th Mlodzinski started the inning giving up 3 straight hits. This made the score 8-5 with the Cubs having runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out. Mlodzinski was able to retire the next 3 batters with no further damage. Montgomery, after giving up a lead off single was able to strike out Pete Crow-Armstrong for the first out in the top of the 9th. He then threw a 1-1 curveball right down the middle to Seiya Suzuki and he hit it into the seats to suddenly make the score 8-7. Michael Busch battled for 8 pitches but finally grounded out to first. This brought up Pirate killer Ian Happ. Montgomery mowed him down on 5 pitches and the Pirates had a much needed win.
Next Game: Tonight Diamondbacks in Pittsburgh. It’s Keller vs. Kelly in the first game of the series. The Diamondbacks are the team directly in front of the Pirates for the final Wild Card spot. A sweep here would take some of the bad taste that the Cubs series left. It was good to see the bats wake up. They need to continue to do so if the Pirates are going to pull off the sweep.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 