Cubs Fix Pirates Road Woes, Maholm Continues To Own Chicago

The Pittsburgh Pirates snapped their 17 game road losing streak with a 2-1 victory at Wrigley Field last night.   With the game tied in the ninth inning, Bucs rookie Jose Tabata ripped a double off Carlos Marmol to drive in Ryan Doumit with the go ahead run.  Octavio Dotel struck out three Cubs to record his 15th save to preserve the win for Pirates starter Paul Maholm. 

Maholm pitched eight effective innings as the Pirates recorded their eighth victory in ten games against the Chicago Cubs.  It was Maholm’s third victory against the Cubs this year as the left hander has pitched 20 innings and allowed just four runs against Chicago.  Maholm improved his record to 5-6 with a 3.98ERA.

In the third inning Tabata walked.  He stole

his fifth base of the season putting him in scoring position.  Tabata then scored from third base for the Pirates first run when Cubs rookie Tyler Colvin misplayed a two-out line drive off the bat of Andrew McCutchen (1-for-5, three strikeouts) into as triple.

Maholm was very effective in changing speeds, working all of his pitches and even reaching 91 on his fastball mix.  He wasn’t real crisp because he didn’t really have to be.  It’s nice to have a start from a pitcher that is as competitive and smart as Paul Maholm.  He certainly bounced back from the worst outing of his career nicely.   This chart is from Brooks Baseball :

Thank your higher power for the wind blowing in at Wrigleyville  tonight:

The key play of the night was a Cedeno to Delwyn Young to Garrett Jones double play.  Young came in to play second base after the collision in right field.  [See post below.]  He played very well at second base and had a really nice turn with the Cubs Jeff Baker doing his best to take out Young on the 6-4-3 inning ender in the seventh.  But a play that won’t get noticed in the  Box score was when he directed Milledge to the ball from his seat in the bullpen.

Octavio Dotel pitched the ninth inning and after hitting Aramis Ramirez got the Cubs in dramatic fashion with three straight strikeouts as the Cubbie faithful were on their feet clapping.

Wait for it…the Pirates have clinched the season series with Chicago. It was far, far from pretty, but a victory nontheless. WHYGAVS let’s you know just how wicked Marmol is, and has a hilarious video for you as well.

For all my friends who love the Cubs, have ripped on the Pirates for oh, so long. Here you go. Enjoy.