Pittsburgh Pirates edged Kansas City Royals 4-2 – MLB Update
Pittsburgh Pirates continued their impressive run as they beat Kansas City Royals 4-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday, June 8 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball.
With their win against the Royals, Pittsburgh have moved three games past .500 win percentage for the first time this season. The game was played on an extremely competitive note with both sides trying to establish their dominance but it was the Pirates
who eventually came out on top to take 1-0 lead in the series.
Gerrett Jones looked in prime form as he doubled to deep right centre in the first inning to put Pittsburgh 1-0 ahead.
Yuniesky Betancourt and Mike Moustakas put up a brilliant show in the third inning to bring Kansas City back into the contest but the Pirates continued to play aggressively and Pedro Alvarez drove in a crucial run in the third inning, giving his team a 4-2
lead.
Clint Barmes had an RBI single to left centre in the second inning to double Pirates’ advantage to 2-0. Neil Walker produced another heroic performance, earning three hits in a low scoring game.
Starting pitcher Erik Bedard pitched seven solid innings for his fourth win of the season. Allowing just two runs and five hits, he created all sorts of problems for the Royals’ offence.
"Unbelievable," Walker deadpanned. "Everyone knows he's one of the fastest guys on the team, but when you slide like that, you're not going to get thrown out too many times at home."
"I think if both teams had it to do over, we'd both like to perform it better," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said of the caught stealing and rundown. "But we were able to steal a run right there."
"Even though I gave up some runs early, I was able to keep my pitch count down and keep us in the game," Luke Hochevar said.
Both Royals and the Pirates wasted a large number of scoring opportunities afterwards and the Pirates held on to their two run lead to secure an important win.
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