Pittsburgh Pirates 6 Cincinnati Reds 3 (April 8, 2007)
| 6
|
| |||
|
0 votes 
0 commentsPittsburgh entered Sunday's game trying to avoid a sweep in Cincinnati. They sent Zach Duke(0-0) to the mound against Eric Milton(0-0). Both pitchers had 6.00+ ERAs during Spring Training.
Neither teams' offense could manage anything more than a couple singles through the first three innings. Pittsburgh's offense got started first, in the top of the fourth. After Xavier Nady singled, 1B Brad Eldred doubled to the leftfield corner. Adam Dunn had trouble fielding the ball, allowing Nady to score easily on the play.
The Reds failed to get anything started off of Duke before the Pirates struck again. With Freddy Sanchez on base in the fifth, SS Jack Wilson homered to leftfield.
Duke had set down eight straight Reds before Alex Gonzalez singled with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Dave Ross struck out swinging to end the inning.
Freddy Sanchez extended the 3 run Pirates lead in the top of the sixth with an RBI double just out of the reach of a diving Ryan Freel.
The Reds finally mounted a rally in the bottom of the seventh with Duke still pitching. Adam Dunn led off the inning with a single, followed by an Edwin Encarnacion double. Ken Griffey Jr. brought both runners home with a double off of the top of the leftfield wall. The Reds trailed 4-2 with no one out in the seventh. Jonah Bayliss relieved Duke before he recorded an out in the inning. Bayliss struck out Jeff Conine and forced Gonzalez to ground out. The Reds scored one more run in the inning with Juan Castro doubling home Griffey off of Juan Perez before Matt Capps got the final out.
Brad Eldred took a Todd Coffey pitch the other way for a HR to give the Pirates a little breathing room: 5-3.
Jason Bay homered in the top of the ninth before Salomon Torres recorded his fourth save of the year in a perfect bottom of the ninth.
Notes:
Torres has saved all four of the Pirates victories.
Matt Capps has three Holds and a 0.00 ERA.
Freddy Sanchez went 2-4 in his first game back from the DL.
Jose Bautista has 4 RBIs on the season.
Eric Milton allowed 10 hits in 5.2 innings.
Dunn is hitting .381.
Freel was caught stealing.
Date
April 8, 2007
