The reason that Pedro Alvarez, that getting at-bats for Ryan Doumit, that not starting an outfield without any power hitters, that finding a first baseman with just a little bit of pop in his bat, is important to the Pirates was on display tonight with Ryan Doumit’s three-run homer in the fourth inning tonight. Sometimes, a team just needs a guy to pop the ball over the fence with guys on base. The Pirates don’t have a ton of guys that can do that and it’s something that’s been notably absent during this nightmare streak of baseball the past three weeks. Tonight, Doumit came up with two guys on, he put the ball over the fence, and that’s probably why the Pirates won tonight.
There were other reasons, of course. James McDonald was his typical, ineffecient but effective for 5-6 innings self. Jason Grilli got out of a jam that McDonald left him in the sixth. Jose Veras came out of the bullpen to get a huge, huge strikeout of Albert Pujols with a nasty curveball. Joel Hanrahan pitched a perfect ninth for a non-save. Xavier Paul hit a home run, Neil Walker had a couple hits, Doumit added three hits other than his homer (inconsequential, but still hits nonetheless), and the Pirates played a nice wire-to-wire game. It seemed like the Cardinals were going to sneak back in a couple of times, but the bullpen pitched well and the offense kept on scoring and the Bucs won pretty easily. It was the sort of nice, uneventful win it feels like the Pirates haven’t had in a while. Probably because they’ve only won three games since they went to Philadelphia the weekend before the trade deadline.
As bad as things have been for the Pirates lately, tonight’s win was their 57th. If that number seems familiar, it’s because they only won 57 games all of last year.
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