Holy cow. Holy cow holy cow holycow.
Facing a knuckleballer for the third time in a month, the Pirates finally got the pitch figured out. They drew four walks from Tim Wakefield in his six innings tonight, with Neil Walker’s free pass in the fifth helping to set up Lyle Overbay’s game-changing three-run homer.
In fact, the Pirates did a lot right tonight. They drew seven walks as a team to go with their eight hits, the bullpen nailed down another slim lead on another long night, they got two huge home runs at the two exact moments they needed them, and for the second straight night I can’t help but come away from this game thinking that the Pirates flat-out outplayed their opponents. Their opponents who happen to be one of the best teams in all of baseball.
When was the last time the Pirates have had a ninth inning as nerve-wracking as tonight’s? After Pedroia just snuck a double past Xavier Paul’s glove at the Clemente Wall, Joel Hanrahan stared down Adrian Gonzalez with fastball after fastball and the hottest hitter in baseball kept fouling them off. Every pitch, I could feel myself inch closer to the TV.
“THROW THE SLIDER!”
I could almost hear the calls from Pittsburgh. Why wasn’t Hanrahan throwing the slider? Would he really be able to sneak another fastball past Gonzalez? Finally, on the sixth pitch of the at-bat and his 24th pitch of the night, Hanrahan unleashed a nasty slider that buckled Gonzalez’s knees for a check swing and the win. Had Hanrahan really been setting Gonzalez up for that pitch all through his at-bat and Pedroia’s at bat and Ortiz’s at bat? I don’t know, but I’m pretty loath to doubt a guy that’s been as awesome as Hanrahan has all year.
Two nights, two massive crowds, two solid baseball games, two Pirate wins. What else can I say? This is fun. This is fun in exactly the way that Pirate baseball never, ever is.
