James McDonald Solid, Doesn’t Matter, Pittsburgh Pirates Drop Fourth Straight

What more can you ask for from a Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher?

James McDonald faced an exclusively left-handed Cleveland Indians lineup and struck out four through 3.1 innings.  His fastball was popping at 94 miles per hour.  McDonald then issued a one out walk to Asdrubal Cabrera.

With two outs, Cabrera was off to the races and Carlos “Bucco Killer” Santana sliced a softly hit 3-2 pitch from JMac down the third-base line.  It bounced just inside the bag, with the Bucs defense (Pedro) playing dead pull.

Cabrera would touch home without a throw by the Bucs as Santana cruised into second base.

It was the one run Cleveland needed.

Luck.  The Tribe had it, the Bucs didn’t.

Indians starter Justin Masterson went seven solid innings and was pretty much unhittable early on for the Bucs batters.  The Indians shutout the Pirates 2-0.  The hard-slider-throwing Masterson picked up his third win by giving up just four hits, while striking out nine.  Masterson was whiffing Buccos at will early, and even when he got into some jams was able to punch out the Bucs soft offense.

The Pirates had the big righty on the ropes three times, including a bases drunk fourth inning,  but Masterson wouldn’t falter as he got Jose Tabata to go down swinging.  Vinnie Pestano shut down the Pirates in the eighth, and Chris Perez picked up his ML leading 21st save in the ninth.

The Bucs made it interesting off of Perez, as a red hot Casey McGehee led off with a single, but Perez got a fly out and a double play to end the game.

The Pirates have now lost four straight.