Ugh. Pirates Bullpen Fails. Again. Dodgers Win in 13th

The Pirates took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning last night.  Matt Capps, looking for his 26th save, was on the mound to face the 2-3-4 hitters in the Dodgers lineup. 

Russell Martin, the Dodgers catcher, popped up to LaRoche.  One out.

The 52,562 Dodger Blue faithful cheered as Andre ‘King of the Walkoff’ Etheir ripped the ball down the first base line and off the wall in right field for a double. 

Manny Ramirez was not walked, instead Capps went right at Manny.  96mph fastballs and 90mph sliders evened the count at 2-2 and a Capps 96mph fastball was popped up to Steve Pearce for the second out.

The next batter, Matt Kemp ripped a 90mph fastball into right field for an RBI single.  Garrett Jones made a poor decision and attempted to throw out Ethier at the plate which allowed Kemp to walk into second base when the throw was up the third base line.

Casey Blake worked Capps for a walk after battling to a 3-2 count.  Jim Thome came in to pinch-hit and would ground out on aball hit up the middle which was gloved by Ronny Cedeno who made a nice play to send the game to extra innings.

In the 13th, Andrew McCutchen reached on an error and would later score on a Ryan Doumit single.  The Pirates took a one run lead, but stranded two base runners.

The bullpen struck again in the bottom half, when Chris Bootcheck allowed Rafael Furcal a leadoff infield single and after Phil Dumtrait came on to pitch,  Andre Mr. Walk Off Ethier hit a bomb to end the game with a two run walk off.  It was his 30th homer of the year and sixth walk off of the year.

The Dodgers have won 23 times in their final at bat.

Jesse Chavez was hitting 97mph in front of his home town fans last night when in the eighth inning he stranded the tying Dodger runner in relief of Zach Duke.

Duke went 7.1 masterful innings and allowed only four hits and two earned runs.  He struck out seven Dodgers.

Steve Pearce hit a two run homer for the Bucs.  Pearce is batting .158 in September and also struck out three times in the game.  Duke helped himself and drove in a run in the second inning.

Ryan Doumit had two hits and also struck out three times.  His average is now .239, his OPS is .690.

________________________________________________________

Reminder to request off April 5 for next year’s opener Pirate fans.   Here is the 2010 Pirates schedule.

The Pirates have a day game tomorrow.  So may I suggest, get over to the Rhino quick. There isn’t much time so no need to go all the way to Mexico although you certainly played well after the suggested lap dance last night fellas.

Hit print right now or simply show this Rum Bunter page on your phones web browser to the Bob the Bouncer tonight.  I am always looking out for you.