The Pirates dodged a bullet here, almost literally. They ran out to an early lead with Alex Presley’s first Major League homer (a great, quick, easy swing through a bad pitch that Jo-Jo Reyes left up in the zone) and then piled on four more runs in the fourth after the Blue Jays outfield turned a Matt Diaz single into a triple. It’s hard not to feel good about a 6-1 lead, even when Kevin Correia was pretty clearly leaving the ball up in the zone all night.
So then Correia served up the most predictable home run in history to Jose Bautista to cut the lead to 6-3. Bautista’s a beast, though, and Correia settled down and made it through six innings only giving up one run and Andrew McCutchen blasted a hanging Luis Perez curve into the left field seats and at that point, it was pretty hard to not feel good about the 7-4 lead the Buccos had built.
Bullpens are volatile, though, no matter how talented, and tonight was Tony Watson’s night for some regression. The rookie’s been excellent in his young Pirate career, but tonight he gave up back to back homers to Corey Patterson and Edwin Encarnacion in some kind of horrific flashback to the 2005 NL Central. But still, back to back solo homers only made the score 7-6 with the bases empty, and the Pirates win expectancy was still at 63% at that point. Watson got pulled for the usually-reliable Chris Resop, and to be honest, I wasn’t really panicking.
And then things got even worse. Resop walked JP Arrenciba (WE: 55%), then gave up a double to Yunel Escobar that probably should’ve scored Arrenciba, but the Blue Jays held the catcher at third (WE: 34%). Resop then got Eric Thames swinging when Clint Hurdle decided to walk Jose Bautista, bring in Jose Veras, and take his chances with Adam Lind.
I understand what a threat Bautista is at the plate, but he’s cooled off a bit in June and I thought Correia handled him pretty well, despite the meatball that he gave up in the fourth. Lind has been excellent in 2011 (.314/.362/.580 for a 155 OPS+ coming in to tonight) and even better in June (.316/.391/.684). He’s a flyball hitter, which means a double play is unlkely (Bautista is a flyball guy, too, but he does still strike out a decent amount, which is why I would’ve taken my chances with Resop against him). He kills righties (.987 OPS and 14 of his 16 homers this year) and with Watson already burned, Hurdle was basically choosing between Resop and Veras and Moskos. Bautista is dangerous, but Lind is equally or more so dangerous in the situation that Hurdle openly elected to face him in.
And then Lind lasered a bullet down the first base line that drives home three runs if it’s a foot or two to the right or left. But it’s not, instead it’s right at Lyle Overbay, who snags it and tabs first for the easy inning-ending double play. And from there Veras and Hanrahan put the Jays down with almost no trouble, and the Pirates somehow avoided defeat in a game that I think they’ve lost 99 of the last 100 times I’ve seen them play it.
The surreal journey continues. The Pirates’ patchwork offense won a six-homer slugfest tonight, despite the Blue Jays having the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with no outs in the seventh. The Pirates won their first game in an American League park since 2009. The Reds and Brewers both lost tonight, which puts the Pirates in third place in the NL Central, three games out of first place. Every single night I get to type something like that means it’s one night closer to something meaningful.
