Pedro Alvarez Opens For Thorogood With Three Run Walk Off Blast In Tenth

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf hates givin up the long ball, especially on the eve of his 28th birthday.  Before the sixth consecutive Saturday night sellout at PNC Park,

the Rockies didn’t hit a bomb off Ohlendorf.   This season Ohlendorf has not given up a homer eight times, in those outings he has an ERA of 2.81.  He came into the game surrending four homers in his past five starts.

Thanks to Chris Snyder the Pirates got three runs for Ohlendorf when Snyder crushed his eleventh homer of the season, a three-run blast off the left field foul pole.  The Pirates haven’t provided Ohledorf with more than three runs in any of his starts.  In fact, he gets the least run support of any pitcher in the league.

Garrett Jones belted his 16th homer of the year to give the Pirates a 4-2 lead in the seventh.

Then in the eighth, Jose Tabata, who has hit safely in 16 of the past 17 games, doubled Delwyn Young to third.  Neil Walker got a four pitch walk.   Garrett Jones struck out, but the ball got away and allowed DY to score for a 5-2 cushion.

The crowd had to be dying to hear George Thorogood and The Destroyers. 

But the band would have to wait, the lead wasn’t enough.  The Pirates stranded runners all over the diamond and in the ninth it came back to haunt the Bucs.  Joel Hanrahan came on for the save  after Evan Meek had pitched a scoreless eighth.  He was greeted with back-to-back hits from the first two Rockies batters he faced.  Then Ian Stewart blasted his 16th homer deep into right center field seats.

Ohlendorf’s birthday present, his second win of the season, was gone.

The Bucs did nothing in the bottom of the ninth.  Ryan Doumit came in to pinch hit and grounded out.  He would replace Snyder who was pinch ran for after earning a walk. You know, bring in the good defensive player with the game on the line, right?

Then Dexter Fowler led off the tenth with an infield single.   The Rockies were in business.  Todd Helton was at the plate.  The Bucs tried everything to keep Fowler close to first base.

The Pirates tried a pitch out–nothing doing.  Doumit was shaking in his spikes. A near pick off by Sean Gallagher almost saved Doumit.  A couple more throws over to GFJ.

But it was too much for Gallagher think about.  Helton blasted his mistake into the right field seats for his third homer.  Ah, I was just shaking my head.

Andrew McCutchen led off the tenth with a disputed homerun that was reviewed and called a double. (Thanks grown man with the ball glove.) Two outs later, including Neil Walker leaving what seemed like his tenth runner on base for the evening, GFJ had a full count and the Rockies were clinging to the 7-5 lead. Huston Street delayed it even longer by calling time to talk to his catcher Olivo.

[God I had this post wrapped up at 200 words….now it’s 481.]

Olivo dropped a GFJ foul tip.  New life?  GFJ really slowed down his swing.  GFJ walked.  Could be big.

Up comes Pedro. Foul ball. PEDRO JUST MURDERED THAT BALL.  HOLY SHIT IT’S OUT.  Ten.   Over.  His helmet is flying in the air.  Big win.  That’s next years highlight reel for certain.

I had four different headlines, so just enjoy this mess of a post.

Fire up the Destroyers.  Sorry we made you wait around George….but this Alvarez kid is all about drama.  We had to have someone open for the world’s greatest bar band.