Raise the Roger Rally: Pirates Walk It Off With 3-2 Win Over Cubs

It was a clean first for Joe Musgrove, and ditto for Kyle Hendricks. The second was also quiet. Big Joe cruised through the third, with Stall picking up the game’s first hit in the Bucco half. With two away in the fourth, Kris Bryant rolled a ball up the middle for Chi-Town’s first rap. Starling singled with one away and swiped second, and it paid off when Redbeard banged a rap into right to ship him home with two away. Big Joe hung an 0-2 hook and Javy Baez ripped it for two bags to open the fifth. Two K’s and a pop up to the mound later, he was still standing at second. Three grounders, three outs for Pittsburgh. It was a 1-2-3 sixth for Chicago; Big Joe has nine! punchouts. Fraze walked to start the Bucs off. Reynolds and Marte both drilled the ball; 2B Tony Kemp made great grab to rob B-Rey and start a DP while Starling lined out. Three bouncers put away the Cubs in the seventh. Kendricks booted J-Bell’s ball to open; a fly and another DP corrected that.

With an out in the eighth, the Cubs got back-to-back singles, and Felipe was called into go lefty-on-lefty. He gave up a triple to Kemp (.185 BA, batting ninth behind the pitcher) to make it 2-1 Cubs, then surrendered a walk before getting a DP to keep the deficit at one. David Phelps took the ball and got a soft comebacker followed by a pair of strikeouts. Keone Kela worked the ninth scorelessly, with just a walk. Kyle Ryan toed the rubber, and was touched for an infield knock to B-Rey with an out. Brandon Kintzler was waved in. Starling’s soft dribbler moved Reynolds up 90′, leading to an intentional pass for J-Bell, with Erik Gonzalez entering to run for Josh. Redbeard walked to load the sacks and Cole Tucker came up to hit for Kela (as a switch hitter, he was the only LH on the bench). He ran the count full, fouled off a heater and drew the game-tying walk with a very pro at bat. K-Man followed with an equally pro set of swings. He started in an 0-2 hole, fouled away until the count was full, and bounced the ninth pitch through the infield for the walk off win. Raise the Roger!

Well, Clint did everything right today, even if it always didn’t pay off. We wondered what the staff saw that had so many guys swinging at the first pitch; Hendricks is a guy that can run up a high pitch count in a hurry. It didn’t produce much offense, but the Bucs did have bad ball luck tonight with several well-stroked outs, so hard to tell if it was a wise thing or not. But it was a great win for a team that needed a spark; pity that Big Joe didn’t get the win.

Notes:

• The Bucs had five hits; Redbeard was the only Bucco to reach twice on a knock and a walk.
• Big Joe’s nine whiffs set his season high (he fanned eight three times this campaign) and tied his career high water mark.
• All three Pirates runs came after two outs.
• There were 29,746 announced at the ballyard on a beautiful night for baseball.
• Clint said pre-game that Tuck was called up as “short term help” while Joey O was out on suspension. Guess they figured the bullpen was thinner than the bench in that final contest against the Halos or too much hassle (logistics & expense) to get Cole to the coast for one game when Osuna began serving his time on Wednesday.