Scores:
Friday: 4-3 Loss vs St. Louis. Bucs drop a close one. Box score.
Saturday: 9-0 Win vs St. Louis. Big break outs for Pedro, JMac. Box score.
Sunday: 5-0 Win vs St. Louis. Pedro 3 run bomb. Box score.
Season Record: 70-60, 3rd place in NL Central, 9.0 games back
Notes: It didn’t start out great, but this may have been the Pirates’ best combined hitting and pitching in a series all season. Check the totals in the box score below and try to find me better ones in any previous post. Pedro Alvarez could have beat the Cardinals by himself with 3 homers, 2 doubles and 3 singles to knock in 7 and score 5. Andrew McCutchen started putting good wood on the ball again with 5 hits. The first-half James McDonald make a welcome return, posting 7 shutout innings and striking out 6 with only 1 walk. Wandy Rodriguez won his first game as a starter for the Bucs with 6 shutout innings of his own. The bullpen was stellar too with 8 1/3 scoreless innings of their own. Neil Walker missed the entire series with tightness in his lower back. Pittsburgh wins the season series against the Cardinals 8-7.
Combined Box
| Pittsburgh | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | OBP |
| Alvarez, 3B | 13 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.615 | 0.615 |
| McCutchen, A, CF | 13 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0.385 | 0.385 |
| Snider, RF | 11 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0.364 | 0.462 |
| Barmes, SS | 11 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0.364 | 0.364 |
| Jones, G, 1B | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0.182 | 0.231 |
| Harrison, 2B | 10 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.400 | 0.417 |
| Tabata, LF | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0.200 | 0.385 |
| Barajas, C | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.125 | 0.125 |
| McKenry, C | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.333 | 0.333 |
| Clement, PH | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Burnett, AJ, P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Rodriguez, W, P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Sanchez, G, PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| McDonald, J, P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | —- | 1.000 |
| Totals | 101 | 17 | 32 | 16 | 7 | 17 | 40 | 0.317 | 0.360 |
Batting
Doubles (6): Barmes (15), McCutchen (24), Alvarez 2 (21), Snider (7), Jones (24)
Triples (1): Snider (1)
Home Runs (3): Alvarez 3 (26)
Baserunning
SB: Snider (2)
CS: McCutchen (11)
Fielding
Errors: Alvarez (21), Barmes (14)
DP: (Barmes-Harrison-Jones), (Alvarez-Harrison-Jones)
Pitching
| Pittsburgh | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | WHIP |
| McDonald, J (W, 12-6) | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.43 |
| Rodriguez, W (W, 9-13) | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| Burnett, AJ (L, 15-5) | 5.7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4.76 | 1.41 |
| Grilli | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.50 |
| Watson | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.50 |
| Hughes, J | 1.3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.50 |
| Takahashi | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Hanrahan | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 1.00 |
| Resop | 1.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 | 3.00 |
| Totals | 27.0 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 23 | 1 | 1.00 | 0.93 |
Transactions: Released LHP Erik Bedard. Recalled SS Chase d’Arnaud.
Filed under: baseball, Pirates Tagged: | Andrew McCutchen, baseball, Cardinals, James McDonald, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez, Pirates, Wandy Rodriguez
