I was worried in the second inning of this one. James McDonald just kept throwing pitch after pitch after pitchin the first inning and even though Andrew McCutchen’s sparkling grab in center field that resulted in a double play kept anything bad from happening, it felt like the start of a long afternoon for McDonald. Jay Bruce lead off the second with a homer, and that only made it worse.
But then McDonald settled in and relatively cruised into the seventh from there. Andrew McCutchen and Xavier Paul and Neil Walker put some big hits together, Ryan Doumit added a homer, the bullpen did juuuust enough to hold on, and now the Pirates are 5-1 against the Reds in Cincinnati this year.
You can say what you want about this ballclub, but they didn’t fold up after a six-game losing streak with a tough draw in Cincinnati. And except for their trouble against Milwaukee, they’ve played good baseball against some of the National League’s best teams. Now, the Pirates come home for five games against two good teams (the Tigers and Braves). I won’t lie, I still enjoy watching this team quite a bit, especially on days Morton and McDonald pitch, despite Clint Hurdle’s insanity. I’m interested to see where they are in a week.
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