Pirates 5, Astros 4
W: McCutchen (1-0)
L: Abad (1-3)
HR BFJ (4), Doumit (3)
Another May day, another starting pitcher treated as though they were the Ghost of Christy Mathewson. James McDonald, who’s gotten the crap kicked out of him in his last three starts, invoked the presence of Master Of Them All today in Steeltown by limiting the Astros to three hits and lots of badly missed pitches in his six shutout innings.
On the other side of the diamond, J.A. Happ pitched in and out of trouble but kept the light-hitting Pirates to two runs through six.
Provided with a 2-0 lead, the previously reliable Buc bullpen flamethrower Chris Resop gave up a blast by Chris Johnson and a single by Hall. Quintero followed by rapping a double, scoring Bill Hall to tie the game. With no outs and Q on second, Angel Sanchez dumped a bunt down the third base line, charged by Brandon Wood. Quintero, running on the play and rounding third by the time the ball was fielded, took advantage of Wood’s wait for the second baseman to cover first and kept running for home. He beat the throw to give the Astros the lead in one of the more spectacular plays we’ll see this season.
Serve it up, rag arm.
Fulchino held the lead in the seventh and turned it over to the bin Laden of the bullpen for the eighth. Allowing Walker and Pearce to reach, Abad gave up the game-winning three-run jack to Ryan Doumit and the Astros lost. Once again, a difficult situation gave way to excitement and the promise of fulfillment, only to be snatched away in favor of dazed head-scratching and disillusion. I think this will help explain.
Read about it in the GameZone or the Astro recap.