Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Jason Bay is congratulated by teammates after hitting the winning home run against the Cubs' Michael Wuertz in the eighth inning last night at PNC Park.
By Dejan Kovacevic
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Strapping on his cowboy boots in a nearly empty clubhouse late last night, Adam LaRoche found perhaps the perfect description for the Pirates' 3-2 upending of the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park.
"Now that," he said with his inimitable twang, "was a pretty good momentum-builder right there."
It certainly had that feel of one that someone could ride, from a team and an individual standpoint.
There was Jason Bay, who has struggled in tight situations for more than a year, belting the winning home run in the eighth inning.
There were big hits, too, from LaRoche and Ronny Paulino, who have struggled in ... well, all situations since opening day.
There was Zach Duke delivering a quality start -- two runs in 6 2/3 innings -- for the second consecutive outing, burying deeper the memory of those two implosions earlier in the month.
And, in the end, there was Salomon Torres, so shaky for so much of April, protecting the one-run lead for his eighth save.
"This was a nice one to have," Bay said. "We've been on the back end of a lot of those kinds of games, so it's nice to be on the front end."
For the better part of the evening, the scene looked terribly familiar: The Pirates were getting good pitching, the other team had a slight lead, and the offense was doing next to nothing.
"We battled back," manager Jim Tracy said. "Give these guys credit."
Duke gave up a run in the first and second innings, then held Chicago scoreless until being lifted with two outs in the seventh. The telling number: 13 ground-ball outs.
"I felt like my focus was in the right place," Duke said. "I'm just pitching like myself, and this is what happens."
He had help. With bases loaded in that seventh, Jonah Bayliss was summoned to face Aramis Ramirez, and Bayliss went right at him, getting a lazy flyout.
"Terrific job," Tracy said.
Bayliss has inherited 10 runners this season. Not one has scored.
It took the offense a while to get going against Rich Hill, Chicago's slick left-hander, and that was no fluke: Hill owns a 1.91 ERA and has held opponents to a .191 average since July.
But the Pirates halved the Cubs' lead to 2-1 in the fifth when Ryan Doumit doubled down the left-field line, then scored on LaRoche's two-out shot up the middle.
"I'm getting closer," LaRoche said, his average at .133.
The Pirates tied the score at 2-2 in the seventh against Hill. Jose Bautista drew a leadoff walk and, one out later, Tracy put the runner in motion. Paulino made it look prescient by bringing Bautista all the way around with a double hammered to the track in left.
Ryan Doumit is hit by a pitch thrown by Cubs starter Rich Hill in the first inning last night at PNC Park.
"That felt pretty good, especially against a pitcher like that," Paulino said, his average at .216.
Michael Wuertz relieved Hill for the eighth and retired the Pirates' first two batters, bringing up Bay.
Would he swing for the fences?
"That's the last thing I'm thinking," Bay said. "It never works out."
Maybe his mind-set changed a bit when he saw Wuertz's 1-0 offering, a splitter ... or was it a cutter? It neither split nor cut, so it was hard to tell.
Whatever it was, it stayed flat and high, right in Bay's wheelhouse, and he sent it into the first row above the left edge of the Clemente Wall, to the delight of the 11,437 in attendance.
"It wasn't mammoth, by any means," he said, grinning. "I tried to give it a little extra oomph as I was going around first base."
It was Bay's fourth home run, his 100th with the Pirates. He is the 20th player in franchise history to reach that mark.
It also, in Tracy's eyes, might have represented a step forward for a middle-of-the-order man who batted .246 with runners in scoring position last season and seems capable of more than his annual 100 RBIs.
"One thing with Jason that is so pleasing is that type of at-bat in that situation, where the game is tied or close and he looks for a specific pitch to drive," Tracy said. "He was in kind of the learning stages last year when we talked about other plateaus that this guy can reach for to become a very, very special player. This can be one of those plateaus."
Bay has a team-high 17 RBIs, 10 of those in the past eight games.
Matt Capps pitched his usual scoreless eighth -- one earned run in 15 appearances now -- and Torres came out for the ninth.
Starter Zach Duke hangs his head before being taken out by manager Jim Tracy in the seventh inning last night.
He found two quick outs, and it looked like he might have his first 1-2-3 inning since April 8. But he walked Ryan Theriot to bring up Derrek Lee, one of the game's great hitters.
Lee would not disappoint, driving Torres' 1-1 pitch to the gap in right-center. It appeared destined for a tying double, but center fielder Chris Duffy had an excellent jump and ran it down with ease.
"He probably helped win the game," Tracy said. "I'm not sure how many center fielders would make that look easy."
The key?
"I was able to see where Sully threw the ball," Duffy said. "Derrek Lee's the kind of guy who hits the ball where it's pitched."
So, when the pitch was a little outside ...
"I started moving to my left."
The Pirates snapped a two-game losing streak and returned to .500 at 12-12.
(Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.)
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