Pirates defeat Braves, 3-1
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Pirates catcher Michael McKenry catches a pop fly off the bat of Braves Nate McLouth with bases loaded against the Braves during the sixth inning Monday night.
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ATLANTA -- It is not about style points, if it were, the Pirates wouldn't have a chance.
Oh, sure, they play hard, they hustle and they pitch as well as just about anyone in the major leagues, but when it comes right down to it they have to work so hard to score runs every game it is almost painful to watch.
But in the end, style points don't really matter and the only thing that does matter is winning, and if there is one thing this Pirates team has done, it has shown that there are plenty of ways to win games.
The Pirates scraped, scratched and clawed their way to a 3-1 victory against the Atlanta Braves Monday night before a crowd of 30,098 at Turner Field.
Game: Pirates vs. Braves, 7:10 p.m., Turner Field, Atlanta.
Radio: Root Sports; WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: RHP Jeff Karstens (8-5, 2.28 ERA) vs. RHP Tommy Hanson (11-5, 3.06 ERA).
Key matchup: Karstens vs. Braves lineup. Atlanta is hitting 40 points better and has 61 more home runs against right-handers.
Hidden stat: Karstens has been charged with two earned runs or fewer in 13 of his past 14 starts.
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The Pirates won despite being outhit by the Braves and committing twice as many errors.
True the Pirates didn't hit the cover off the ball, again, but they didn't need to in order to win and that's because they were opportunistic on offense and defense.
And while Pirates starter James McDonald allowed eight hits over 51/3 innings and was hit hard a number of times -- he also registered a career-high nine strikeouts and those strikeouts helped him get out of some tough situations.
One statistic which probably supports the difference between the two teams -- and starting pitchers for that matter -- in this game is this: McDonald issued no walks, while Atlanta starter Tim Hudson issued three, and all three scored the Pirates runs.
The Pirates scored two runs in the second mostly because they were able to make Hudson pay for walking the first two hitters of the inning.
And the two batters -- Lyle Overbay and Ronny Cedeno -- who made the first two outs of the inning, also helped the cause as they made sure their outs counted for something positive.
Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez led off the inning by drawing walks. Overbay then hit a long fly ball to right which was caught but was deep enough that McCutchen and Alvarez were able to advance a base.
First Published July 26, 2011 12:00 am
