Two weeks ago, during the game that we’ll all remember as the Drew Sutton game, Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones had a little moment in the dugout after the Jones home run that gave the Pirates their first lead of the game. Jones’s homer came on a ridiculous golf swing and after he and McCutchen rounded the bases, ‘Cutch mocked the swing in the dugout with a huge grin on his face while Jones and the rest of the team watching and laughing. The reaction in the dugout felt pretty similar to the one that was coming from Pirate fans at the same thing: “This is incredible! Can you believe this is happening?!”
Today, the Pirates found themselves down 3-0 after three batters and 5-1 before the bottom of the second inning ended and it seemed like no one even blinked. Clint Hurdle probably could’ve yanked James McDonald at that point (I certainly would’ve thought about it in his place), but instead he sent Ray Searage out to chew him out. McDonald got the third out in that inning, and the Pirates proceeded to do exactly what a team that can hit a ton of home runs should do in Coors Field against Jeremy Guthrie. Garrett Jones hit a three-run homer to pull the Pirates to within 5-4, Clint Barmes singled in two runs to give the Pirates a lead and chase Guthrie after an error and a bad hop kept the inning alive. When the Rockies tied the game in the fourth, Casey McGehee hit a two run homer and Rod Barajas added an insurance shot in the fifth.
For a four run comeback, it almost felt routine. I mean, it was a fun game to watch/listen to in the way that only Coors Field slugfests can be, but the way the Pirates buzzed through Guthrie and the Rockies bullpen when they needed to this afternoon was businesslike. If you want to say that the Sutton game was the first time that you believed as a Pirate fan that the Pirates could pull off such a comeback, today it almost felt assumed. The Pirates needed a win today given the way they came out of the gate after the break and the pitching matchup and not only would an early four-run deficit not deny them, I’m not even sure that it bothered them.
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