Pirates Fall 4-2, Punched Out 13 Times by Strasburg

Seven innings.

Thirteen strikeouts.  As dominating as this performance was for Stephen Strasburg, the Pirates had a couple of chances to grab a victory and sweep a team that was as hot as any coming into the series.

They simply didn’t cash in on any of them.

After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, Kevin Correia allowed homers to Roger Bernadino and Adam LaRoche.   Each Nats player showed bunt before taking Cy Correia deep, LaRoche on a 86 mile per hour watermelon.

The next failed opportunity came in the sixth inning with two outs.   Strasburg issued back-to-back-to-back walks to Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, and Neil Walker.  But up came Garrett Jones who Strasburg had whiffed twice…the Stras made it three.

In case you’re into S&M and would like to see all 13 Pirates strikeouts again, here’s the video

Ryan Mattheus,  Tyler Clippard, and Henry Rodriguez recorded scoreless seventh, eighth and ninth to shut down any Pirates thoughts of a comeback.