Pittsburgh Pirates Kevin Correia Keeps Winning as Bucs Move Closer in Wild-Card Standings

The Pittsburgh Pirates needed a solid start.  Kevin Correia provided it with six innings of four-hit baseball against one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball.

The Bucs don’t control the schedule, they just need to roll through it.  The Bucs took two-of-three thanks to solid starts from Correia and Wandy Rodriguez.  It’s ironic that Wandy took Correia’s rotation spot, but now both of them are pitching as well as any Pirates starter over their last few outings.

KC has given up four runs in his past five outings over 18.2 innings.    The right-hander scored his eighth win in his past ten decisions as the Bucs scored a 6-3 win over the Astros and tallied their 72nd win of the season, the same as they had last season.

Brock Holt drove in two runs, one with a simple put the bat on the ball tapper to first base that scored Alex Presley.

The Bucs got the bats going early against southpaw Fernando Abad when Garrett Jones and Gaby Sanchez delivered run-scoring base knocks.  Alex Presley scored an inning later when Brock Holt showed off just what he could do with a full-count.  Brock Star simply put the ball in play and it was enough to score the speedy Presley from third.

The pitch was outside and Holt pulled it to first base.  When Brett Wallace and Abad failed to get to the bag quickly enough, Holt beat it out for the RBI.

So the Bucs had staked KC to a 3-0 lead, and after surrending a run in the fourth inning when Brian Bogusevic singled, the Astros would load up the bases.  But a stellar play by #All-Star Gaby Sanchez left ’em juiced.  The Pirates first baseman started a sweet double play ball that would end the threat.

After the twin killing, an Astros player wouldn’t reach base against Correia.

Alex Presley tripled to plate Rod Barajas from first base and Holt hit a sac-fly to score Presley.   The final Pirates run came in the sixth, when once again Presley got it started with a single and eventually scored on a Clint Barmes squeeze bunt.

All bunts are not good, but that one was perfectly executed.

A two-run bomb was allowed by Jason Grilli when his first pitch, a heart-of-the-plate fastball, was crushed.

The win was just what the Bucs needed as they head into their last complete off day, before the Chicago Cubs arrive at PNC Park for a weekend set.