Where on earth do I even start with this one? Charlie Morton struggled quite a bit early on in this game, and through most of his five innings I was thinking that he just had to keep it close enough to give the Pirate offense a chance to take over. I can’t take credit for seeing what was waiting in the seventh inning, though: that was a lot more than I dared hope for. Back to Morton for a second, though. The Dodgers loaded up with lefties and dinged Morton for 10 hits in five innings, but only the first hit and the last hit went for extra bases. It wasn’t a great start or a good start by Morton, but it could’ve been much worse. Given the bullpen situation, I’m guessing Clint Hurdle felt like he needed five innings out of Morton, and he found a way to get them.
The game actually started turning around before that fateful seventh inning. With Starling Marte on first and one out in the fifth inning, Alex Wood tried to go upstairs on Andrew McCutchen with an 88 mph fastball. He got the pitch high enough, but he certainly didn’t throw it hard enough to get it past McCutchen, and ‘Cutch banged it off of the batter’s eye to bring the Pirates to within 5-3. That was the hit that made it all feel possible, and the Pirates delivered on that promise.
And now we can talk about that seventh inning. At first I wondered if the Pirates playing super-cautious with Yasiel Puig’s arm would end up costing them — the first run of the inning scored when Francisco Cervelli singled in Jung Ho Kang, but Alvarez was held at third. At that point, Neil Walker came up and it seemed logical to think that Don Mattingly would go get Jim Johnson and bring a lefty in, but he let the right face Walker. Walker nearly dropped a single in front of Andre Ethier. Ethier made the play, but Alvarez was able to tag and score. The Pirates took the lead on an infield single from Starling Marte, then Jim Johnson (who was still in the game) walked Gregory Polanco. The game came apart at the seams for the Dodgers after that: Andrew McCutchen singled in two runs and Aramis Ramirez singled in another one to put the Pirates up 9-5, Mattingly finally came out to get Johnson, and Jung Ho Kang hit Joel Peralta’s first pitch over the fence for a three-run homer, to ice the cake at 12-5. Seven runs scored with two outs, starting with a bases-loaded infield single and ending with a three-run homer. Francisco Cervelli homered in the eighth to finish the scoring off at 13, because why not?
It’s easy enough to laud the offense in this game, because the Pirates have quickly turned into the team we thought they’d be when the season began. With AJ Burnett out, the Pirates can’t count on a strong start most nights of the week, but the offense is doing their share of the heavy lifting. I think Arquimedes Caminero deserves a shout-out here, too, though. After Morton’s rough start, the Pirates needed someone to keep the game close enough for the offense to win it, and Caminero gave the Pirates two scoreless innings that accomplished just that. With the rotation in the state that it’s in, the bullpen is going to be asked to do a lot down the stretch. With Caminero throwing well again, at least it doesn’t seem like a stretch that they could pull it off.
On Friday, the Pirates managed to beat the Dodgers by coming back from two deficits against Clayton Kershaw, then getting a walk-off hit in the 12th. On Saturday, they won a 6-5 game in which Francisco Liriano only gave them three innings on the mound, but he also gave them a three-run homer. Joe Blanton bailed the Pirates out in that one, with three scoreless innings of relief. On Sunday, they scored eleven runs after falling behind 5-1 in the fifth inning. They’re not pitching the same way they did early in the season, but they’re still finding ways to beat good teams. And they’re certainly still fun to watch.
Bring on the Cardinals.
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