Cincinnati Reds 9 Pittsburgh Pirates 5 (April 29, 2007)
| 3
|
| |||
|
0 votes 
0 commentsAfter splitting the first two games of the series, Pittsburgh and Paul Maholm (1-2) had their work cut out for them against the Reds and Aaron Harang(3-0). Harang was undefeated, while Maholm was coming off of the best start of his career, a complete game shutout against Houston.
Pittsburgh struck first. Jason Bay and Ryan Doumit each singled to put two men on for Jose Bautista. With two outs, Bautista crushed the ball over LF Adam Dunn's head. The ball bouced off the warning track and over the wall for a ground-rule double. This scored Bay and left two men in scoring position for Maholm. He poked a single to leftfield and scored both runners.
Down 3-0, the Reds quickly rallied in the top of the third. Edwin Encarnacion and Dave Ross hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. After the next two batters got out, Brandon Phillips singled up the middle to score Ross.
The Pirates bounced right back. Bay doubled to right and moved over to third on a wild pitch. After Adam LaRoche struck out, Doumit doubled off the rightfield wall for a double, scoring Bay.
Again, the Reds did not wait long to strike back. Trailing 4-1, Jeff Conine singled and moved to second on a passed ball. Alex Gonzalez and Adam Dunn each walked to load the bases for Encarnacion with nobody out. He hit a flyball to the 410-foot sign in the left-center corner of PNC. All three runners came home for a bases-clearing triple. Tied up at 4, Harang singled home Encarnacion and Phillips drove in a run to cap the five-run inning.
With Shawn Chacon in to relieve Maholm in the fifth, Dunn took a 3-0 pitch into the bullpen for a two-run homer.
Gonzalez hit another home run for the Reds and Doumit added a home run off of Harang in the ninth, as Pittsburgh fell 9-5.
Game Notes:
- Maholm lasted only 54 pitches.
- Harang pitched 8 innings, allowing 5 runs and striking out 9.
- Bautista hit his 10th double of the year.
- Dunn hit his 6th HR of the year.
- Encarnacion's triple was his 2nd career three-bagger.
Date
April 29, 2007
