Pittsburgh Pirates: Regular season results – MLB August 2011 - Part 6
Despite putting up a brave effort in a three match series against Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates failed to achieve the desired results. It was a testing time for the NL Central team.
Having lost 17 of their last 24 games in Major League Baseball, the Pirates needed a miracle to recover their lost form. Team manager, Clint Hurdle aimed to play more consistent baseball in their next four match series with Milwaukee Brewers to give the
fans something to cheer about.
Wasting opportunities and allowing their rivals to dictate terms, the Pirates were awful in the opening game of the series. Their offence was poor and they had an ordinary defence in the field.
The Brewers, on the other hand, displayed some high quality hitting to establish complete control over the contest. Scoring freely, the hitters did a sensational job for Milwaukee.
Chris Narveson was absolutely brilliant with his throwing as he pitched a shut-out ball into the sixth inning and drove in two runs to lift the Brewers to a big 8-1 win over the Pirates.
Pittsburgh, who was in first place five weeks ago struggled to maintain some sort of form. Jeff Karstens produced a solid performance for the Pirates, allowing only two runs and six hits in seven innings but he couldn’t end his team’s misery against the
inform Brewers.
Punching back, the Pirates raised their game to an entirely new level in game two of the series. Dominating their opponents in almost all departments of the game, they secured a comprehensive 9-2 win to level the series 1-1.
It was an astonishing comeback by Clint Hurdle and his men considering the way they were hammered in the previous game. Ryan Doumit led the hitting pack in an emphatic fashion as he homered and drove in two runs to end the Pirates’ poor run against the Brewers.
"We were able to do some things we haven't been able to do against them, getting some timely hits, getting some hits with runners in scoring position, running the bases aggressively," Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle said.
Although the Pirates lost the third game, they came back strongly in the fourth and final game to end the series on a positive note.
"Poise is the word I kept using over and over in the dugout to describe Aaron," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "He had a slow heartbeat. He looked polished out there, like he had done it a number of times. He stepped into a difficult situation against
a really good team and did well. We're proud of him."
Aaron Thompson, who began his MLB career a few days ago, pitched 4/13 scoreless innings and Jason Grilli won for the first time in nearly two years to help the Pirates snatch a 2-0 win over their arch rivals.
Continued in part 7
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