Bucs: 5-Run Eighth Powers Pirates Past Arizona
PITTSBURGH — The Pirates trailed for most of the game Tuesday night, but a 5-run eighth inning rally earned them an 8-5 win Tuesday night at PNC Park.
"(Arizona starter Daniel) Hudson pitched a pretty good game for them today, they got a new guy in there and we were able to jump on him," Andrew McCutchen said. "We didn't give up; we just kept battling."
Trailing 5-3 headed in to the top of the eighth, Arizona reliever David Hernandez came in and immediately gave up a double to Garrett Jones. Jose Tabata followed suit with a double of his own and Josh Harrison punched out a single in the next at bat to all of a sudden tie the game, 5-5.
The Pirates (29-30) were far from finished, though, with one on and no outs.
Xavier Paul bunted Harrison over to second and Arizona (33-28) catcher Miguel Montero attempted to get the out at second. His throw was too late and both Paul and Harrison were safe.
Andrew McCutchen followed with a walk on four straight pitches to load the bases with no outs for Lyle Overbay. He took a 3-1 pitch and pummeled it in to right center field to score three and give the Pirates an 8-5 lead.
"We had some great at bats to lead up to that," Overbay said, "and I got into a count where he's got to throw a strike, so I took advantage of it."
Joel Hanrahan came on in the ninth and closed out the game. It was his 15th save in 15 appearances.
"Nightmarish would be one word you could use to describe (the eighth inning)," acting Arizona manager Alan Trammell said. "Momentum is a wonderful thing if you're on the good side of it. They got the momentum going in that inning and we tried to minimize the damage but we couldn't."
Pirates starter Kevin Correia didn't have his best stuff Tuesday, giving eight hits and four earned runs in five innings, including two solo home runs. But he was relieved by Daniel Moskos, Evan Meek and Chris Resop, who combined to pitch three innings and allow just one run on five hits.
Resop got the win, his second of the season (2-1).
Arizona got off to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a home run by Kelly Johnson. Chris Snyder and Ronny Cedeno knocked in runs in the second and Snyder drove in another in the fourth for a 3-1 Pirates lead.
The Diamondbacks answered back in the fifth with a solo homer from Juan Miranda and a two-run single from Johnson to take the lead. That advantage held until the eighth when Chris Young hit another solo homer for Arizona for a 5-3 lead.
Then the Pirates bats awoke for a game-winning rally in the bottom of the eighth.
"(Hudson) did a good job of battling back from a rough start to the game, but we thought seven innings was enough," Trammell said. "We wanted to go to Hernandez and then to (J.J. Putz) and hope it was a D-back win, but it did not happen that way."
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Chris Gates | Bucs Blog
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Chris.Gates@cbsradio.com
