Pittsburgh Pirates Are 15 Games Over .500, Get 29th Comeback Victory

This game was ugly with countless Pittsburgh Pirates left on-base against a Houston Astros team that is playing hard, just not seeing the victories in the win column….it had the makings of a terrible loss.  Stud rookie Starling Marte had grounded out a few times, just when the Bucs grabbed a lead, rookie Jared Hughes let it slip away.

But then the ninth inning came along.  The Bucs put together some seriously great plate appearances by showing patience.  With the bases loaded and one out, Starling Marte, who was 0-for-4 smacked a sacrifice fly to tie the game.  He hit the ball off his shoe tops to tie the game at five.

Sutton moved up to third on the sacrifice, and then scored on the wild pitch.

Michael McKenry was huge tonight with a huge bomb and then he doubled late to spark the Bucs.   It’s hard to imagine the Fort spending much time on the bench after swinging such a big stick.  He has reached base safely in 30 of his 36 starts this season.  The Fort has hit safely in 12 of his past 17 games, with six doubles and six bombs.  His defense is also to be noted, as McKenry has just one error in his past 41 appearances behind the dish.

Drew Sutton scored on a wild pitch from Xavier Cedeno a few moments later to give the Pirates a 6-5 lead and the Bucs snatched victory from a certain defeat as Joel Hanrahan struck out two, including the last one with an Astros runner on second to pick up his 31st save.

Ugly?  So be it.  Just win baby.