Pittsburgh Pirates: Regular season results for April - MLB 2011 - Part 1
Unable to execute their game plan during the spring training season, the Pirates were looking to achieve considerable results in the 2011 regular season to make it to the World Series. Pittsburgh Pirates got off to decent start to their regular season campaign
as they secured a 6-3 win over Chicago Cubs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Neil Walker hit a towering grand slam in a display of some high quality hitting and Andre McCutchen also homered to help the Pirates take a 1-0 lead over their arch rivals. Clint Hurdle and his men had lost fifteen out of eighteen meetings against Cubs in
the previous season. Showing great determination and fighting abilities during the contest, they salvaged some of the lost pride.
“It's definitely good confidence builder for us,” Walker said. “It's a good win to come into somebody else's Opening Day and steal a win.”
Although the Pirates lost the second game of the series, they were back to their very best in the third and final game to secure their first series win of the month. Handling the pressure absolutely brilliantly, they came out on top in a nail biting encounter
with the score of 5-4. Neil Walker capped a two run rally in ninth innings and the Pirates secured a deserving series win.
The Pirates manager, Clint Hurdle said, “It goes back to the aggressive base running trend, try to be smart and try to be aggressive. Nick [Leyva] is a very aggressive third base coach and Neil plays the game that way when he's on the bases. Once he saw
the play develop from second base, he knew there was a very good shot he was going to pull something off and he did.”
The Pirates made a decent start to their next three match series against St. Louis Cardinals as they secured another narrow 4-3 win to take a 1-0 lead in the series. In addition to their phenomenal attacking abilities, the Pirates had a rock solid defence
as well, which helped them outclass their opponents in finer details of the game.
Cardinals fought back bravely in the following game, thanks to Miguel Batista who earned his first win of the season to help his side level the series at 1-1. However, the Pirates concentrated on their own game play and secured a comfortable 3-1 win in third
and final game to win their second series of the month.
Despite having the winning momentum on their side, the Pirates failed to deliver the goods in a four match series against Colorado Rockies. Looking completely out of sorts, Clint Hurdle’s side received a 1-7 hammering from the Rockies in the opening game
to trail 0-1 in the series.
Continued in part 2
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