Brandon Wood and Paul Maholm spark as Pittsburgh Pirates defeat New York Mets 3-1 – MLB Update
Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman, Brandon Wood and starter Paul Maholm both were outstanding as Wood went 1-for-3 and Maholm pitched seven economical innings with an ERA of 3.12 in the Pirates’ 3-1 victory over the New York Mets at PNC Park, Pittsburgh
on June 13.
The Pirates’ batters outclassed the pitchers through their extraordinary performance with the bat. They started their first inning well and took a 1-0 lead when Neil Walker singled to centre-field, Jose Tabata scored a single run and Xavier Paul moved to
second base. The second to fourth inning passed score-less as the pitchers threw the ball in perfect line.
At the bottom of the fourth inning, Walker was out to centre-field while Lyle Overbay grounded out to second base and was unable to add even a single run for their team.
In the fifth inning, the Pirates extended their lead 2-0 when Wood hit a solo homer (387 feet) towards left-field. No run was added in the sixth and seventh inning from both sides as the pitchers were again on top during this span.
Maholm did give away any run on three hits and struck-out four batters. He permitted two walks on his 95 pitches. Maholm commented on his game and said, “When it's game day, it's time to go compete and have fun. When I get on the mound, my focus is to get
the first guy of an inning out and get groundballs. That's how it's been going lately.”
The Pirates’ manager, Clint Hurdle commented on Maholm and said, “Sometimes, a pitcher is too worried about making a mistake if there's no room for error or no large safety net to work with. I know for a fact he's really comfortable with the way he's pitching
now.”
During the eighth inning, both the teams contributed one run on the score-board to move it 3-1. For the Mets, Jose Reyes hit a sacrifice fly off left-field, Ruben Tejada posted one run and Lucas Duda got out at first base.
On the other side, Walker walked and Ronny Cedeno added a single run to cut his team’s deficit. Tabata occupied second base at the end of the eighth inning. The batters failed to score any run in the ninth inning.
Mike Pelfrey was little bit shaky as he allowed two runs on four hits in his seven inning pitches.
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