I got home from this afternoon’s symposium after 5 PM and turned my computer on hesitantly, worried that I might find that the Pirates did something to undermine last night’s win. Instead, I find them in the bottom of the 13th inning, tied at five. “Well,” I said to myself, “At least we’re playing another good game, even if we manage to blow this.”
As the inning unfolded on the screen in front of me, I started filling myself in on the details. Two homers for Andrew McCutchen. A homer for Andy LaRoche. A game-tying, pinch-hit homer for Ryan Doumit off of Trevor Hoffman in the ninth. A decent seven-inning start for Paul Maholm. Five innings of one-run ball from the bullpen after that. Good, good stuff. Then Alcides Escobar singled into left field and Lastings Milledge made a decent (on-line but not that strong) throw to the plate. And while waiting for the ball, Ryan Doumit blocked the plate! Rather than bowl him over (like he should’ve), Jim Edmonds tried to slide around Doumit and was tagged out. Within a couple minutes, Garrett Jones was doubling Aki Iwamura in, DJ Carrasco was easily closing down his third scoreless inning, and the Pirates had won a series in Miller Park.
What else can I say? For the second day in a row, the Pirates got a decent start, made some solid plays, and found themselves on the winning end of the score. And now there are two games between the team and that seven-game losing streak.
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