Neil Walker helps Pittsburgh Pirates edge Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 – MLB Update
Pittsburgh Pirates showed great fighting spirits and willpower to edge the Arizona Diamondbacks at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, August 8 in Game 3 of their four match series.
Neil Walker displayed some top quality hitting skills as he connected for a three run home-run to right in the first inning to help the Pirates come back from behind for a 3-2 lead. Rookie Starling Marte continued his marvellous hitting form as he added
a solo home-run to centre in the third to extend Pirates’ lead to 4-2.
Walker doubled top deep centre in the fifth and shortstop Jordy Mercer belted a home-run to left in the sixth to put Pittsburgh in a commanding position. To their credit, the Diamondbacks put up solid fight in closing stages of the game but the Pirates held
their nerves to take 2-1 lead in the series.
Starting pitcher Kevin Correia grabbed his ninth win of the season after giving up just four runs with five strike-outs in six solid innings. His counterpart from Arizona, Ian Kennedy allowed six runs in just four innings to suffer his ninth loss.
"We're here to please the people who make the decisions of when you get to play and when you don't," Correia said. "Obviously, I hadn't pitched in a couple weeks in a start, and I still felt pretty good."
"That shows you the importance of a big-time closer at the end of the game to go ahead and shut that thing down and get the win and get out of here and get back to your house and bed where it's safe," Hurdle said of relief pitcher Joel Hanrahan.
In some ways, it was a big win for Clint Hurdle and his men who are now just three games behind Cincinnati Reds at the top of National League Central Division standings table.
Not many baseball writers and analysts expected the Pirates to be 16 games above .500 percentage mark at this point of the season. It will be interesting to see if Pirates can continue their impressive run to grab one of the wild card spots.
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