Pittsburgh Pirates: Regular season results – MLB August 2011 - Part 5
Pittsburgh Pirates had a decent time in a three match series against the St. Louis Cardinals as they recorded their first series win in Major League Baseball after a drought of nearly three weeks.
At the end of July, the Pirates had gone over the breakeven point (.500 win-loss record) for the first time since August 1999. Clint Hurdle and his men were hoping to continue their good form in their next three match series with Cincinnati Reds as well
to become the leading NL Central team.
However, they were unable to convert easy scoring opportunities in the opening game to let the Reds take a crucial 1-0 lead in the series. The Reds, on the other hand, showed the Pirates the difference between being good and being ordinary on the base-paths.
Pittsburgh ran itself out of a rally in the 8th inning and the Reds made them pay heavily in the following innings as they took complete advantage of closer Joel Hanrahan’s unforced errors to grab an 11-8 win.
"We kept fighting, we kept scratching and clawing," said Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle, who was ejected in the fifth for arguing. "We kept finding a way to get back in it to tie it up. We were one punch away from creating some serious separation."
Being 1-0 down in the series, things were not looking very bright for the Pirates. Clint Hurdle and his men aimed to get things back on a track with a strong performance in the second game of the series. The Pirates did exactly that as they battled past
their opponents 5-3 to keep the series alive.
Charlie Morton, who had great success against the Reds in earlier games, failed to live up to the expectations but Pittsburgh didn't. Against the National League’s second highest scoring team of the season, the player pitched with great control and accuracy.
"Successes breeds confidence," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "He seems to enjoy the challenge of facing that offense. It's a very good offense."
Neil Walker, however, was the real star of the show as he had two RBI singles, driving in the go ahead run in the seventh inning. Andrew McCutchen and Ryan Ludwick also made useful contributions, having two hits each and the Pirates stormed back to level
the series.
However despite having the winning momentum on their side, the Pirates were unable to deliver the goods in third and final game to suffer yet another series defeat in August 2011. It was a disappointing result for them considering all the hard work they
had put in during the series.
Continued in part 6
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