Pittsburgh Pirates’ Garret Jones help snatch series opener from San Diego Padres 4-3 - MLB Update
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ sluggers, Garrett Jones and Chris Snyder both launched homers to lead the club to a 4-3 victory in the first game against the San Diego Padres at the Petco Park, on Monday, May 2 to take a 1-0 lead in the three-game series.
Garret landed at the plate with an ambition to snap the Pirate’s nine game losing streak against the Padres and provided an excellent start with a two-run homer. Then, Snyder hit a two-run homer in a dream start for the Pirates. With this hit, the Pirates
acquired an early four runs lead that the opposition could not surpass.
The Pirates’ starter, James McDonald began impressively by holding the Padres scoreless in his first five innings. The 26-year-old pitcher gave his first run in the sixth inning when Padres’ slugger, Jorge Cantu launched a two-run homer to left-field.
As McDonald tired, the skipper Clint Hurdle did an excellent move of changing him with a fresh Jose Veras. The move worked and the Padres’ batting, which might have achieved some momentum against a tired McDonald, stopped. Veras pitched a strong inning and
held the Padres scoreless. However, the Padres were not ready to let the game go away so easily and they utilised their full strength to make a come-back in the game.
Ryan Ludwick added an RBI single in the eighth, it seemed as if the Padres would succeed in making a full come-back, but the Pirates’ closer Joel Hanrahan washed their hopes away, pitching one scoreless inning.
McDonald pitched six innings and gave two runs on five hits and walked one while taking out five batters to earn his second win with a 6.75 ERA. The reliever, Veras did not give any run, while Chris Resop gave one run on two hits and walked one in a crucial
moment. However, Hanrahan tossed one strong inning to save his team from their tenth straight loss.
The Padres’ pitcher, Aaron Harang, had a bad day with the ball as the hurler tossed just five innings, gave four runs on five hits and allowed two walks for his second lose in season. Harang now has 4-2 record with 4.37 ERA considerably better than McDonalds
6.75 ERA.
The Padres’ relievers, tossed impressive innings, as Cory Luebke and Ernesto Frieri did not allow any run in their spells. Luebke pitched three innings and gave just one hit as he struck-out two batters. Closer Luke Gregerson expressed the same kind excellent
pitching and did not give away a hit.
The Pirates won this game with just six combined hits and it pleased Hurdle as he said, "We hit two out and we didn't see a whole lot of grass. I think we shot more balls into the dugout than we did out in the field for hits. We played a complete game. We
had two hits after the first inning and our pitching held up."
The Pirates now have gained the psychological advantage over the struggling Padres batting line-up for the next two games.
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