Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Pirates > Cubs

Pittsburgh's domination of the Cubs continued Tuesday night, as they pulled off a come from behind 3-2 victory. This is the Pirates' 7th win in 8 games this year. I'd like to remind everyone, the one Cubs win came with me in attendance. So if the Cubs want to provide me tickets to all of their games against the Pirates, I'm convinced they can pull out some wins.
For the Cubs, there were two bright spots. The first was Xavier Nady's 4-4 day at the plate, including a HR, double and two singles. Nady's HR accounted for both Cubs runs. Nady started at first, in place of Derrek Lee.
The second were two defensive plays by SS Starlin Castro. On the first batter of the game, Castro made a long run past the left field foul line and reached out to make the catch a few feet away from the stands.
His second great play came in the 7th, ranging to his right he grabbed a one hopper from his side falling backwards. I know, that's a lot of description, it was incredible to watch.
Pirates SP Jeff Karstens gave up 2 ER in 6 innings to get the no decision, but could have potentially cost his team the game in the 3rd inning. With 2 outs, Lastings Milledge hit a fly ball to left center that Cubs CF Tyler Colvin missed on a diving attempt.
Running slowly around third, Karstens did not score until after Milledge was tagged out trying to stretch his hit into a triple. Had Karstens been running hard, the Pirates would have cut the Cubs 2 run lead in half.
It didn't matter however, as Cubs SP Ted Lilly gave up a 2-run HR to Neil Walker in the 8th, putting the Pirates ahead 3-2. The Pirates bullpen combined for 3 innings of 1-hit baseball.

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