Wednesday, May 19, 2010
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/?m=1
PHILADELPHIA -- Go figure this particular group of Pirates ...
They get knocked flat on their backs one day, then bounce back the next.
Get mowed down by someone with a 5.89 ERA, then beat Roy Halladay.
Yeah, they really did that last one: Garrett Jones had three of the nine hits against Philadelphia's $20 million ace, Zach Duke complemented that with six strong innings, and the bullpen trio of Evan Meek, Joel Hanrahan and Octavio Dotel finished off the Phillies, 2-1, Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park.
It was as sound a victory as the Pirates have had all season and, to hear them tell it, it was no less satisfying.
"Outstanding," catcher Ryan Doumit called it. "A really nice win."
H. Rumph Jr./Associated Press
Pirates pitcher Zach Duke throws against the Phillies in the first inning of Tuesday's game at Citizens Bank Park.
Atop the list, surely, was that it represented a rare success for any team against Halladay, the National League's preseason Cy Young favorite who entered 6-1 with a 1.59 ERA, and whose complete game on this night was his fourth, most in Major League Baseball.
No, the Pirates did not exactly pulverize him, but they matched the second-highest hit total off Halladay this season, a third of those hits went for extra bases, and they forced him into 132 pitches, one shy of his career high and most this season in the majors.
This despite taking more than a few early-count cuts.
"You've got to be patient, but you can't be too patient," manager John Russell said. "We had some guys who really rose to the occasion here. That guy's not going to lose too many games."
Halladay was asked if he felt the Pirates were patient.
"I don't think so," he replied. "Really, Jones hit the ball on the ground and found holes and cost us a couple runs. I thought our approach against them was pretty good. You just never know when that extra run is going to cost you."
The Pirates' first run came in the second, on back-to-back, two-out doubles by Doumit and Andy LaRoche. The other came in the sixth when Lastings Milledge legged out an infield single, took second on a textbook hit-and-run to the right side by Andrew McCutchen, then scored on Jones' liner into center.
Milledge crashed into catcher Carlos Ruiz, jamming his left hand -- "It's fine," he would say later -- but raised his other arm to pump his fist, neatly at the same time.
That gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead, and it was not the only visible show of emotion: In the eighth, when Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins lashed a ball just foul of the right-field chalk, Jones had been leaping near first base to demonstratively urge it out of play.
"We wanted this," Jones said.
"We knew it was going to be tough," Milledge said. "That guy doesn't make his multimillions for nothing, and we had to scratch and claw. But we got it done."
So did the pitchers, front to end.
Duke entered at the other extreme from Halladay, 0-4 in his past five starts with a 7.86 ERA, but he held Philadelphia's potent lineup to one run and six hits over six innings. That included two escapes: McCutchen threw out Jayson Werth at home plate in the fifth to limit Juan Castro's bases-loaded single to one RBI, and Duke struck out Halladay to end it. The Phillies loaded the bases in the sixth, but Ben Francisco's sharp grounder was backhanded by LaRoche -- exactly the play that has been causing him fits of late -- to end that one.
The key, as Duke had forecast a day earlier, was a tighter delivery aimed at a higher release point for his sinker, which resumed sinking again.
"I just needed to get back on top of the ball," Duke said.
It was his first win since April 10.
The bullpen followed with another in a growing list of dominating performances with the lead, now 12-1 when leading after six. Meek, Hanrahan and Dotel -- recording his eighth save -- retired nine of the 10 batters they faced, with Meek's walk all that kept them from perfection.
No one was more impressive than Hanrahan, who figuratively drew the short straw and faced the 2-3-4 in Philadelphia's potent lineup -- Placido Polanco, Rollins and Ryan Howard -- and went 1-2-3 through them. Howard swung over a third-strike slider in the dirt.
"I'm fine with that," Hanahan said of his lineup draw. "I like it."
Afterward, as often has been the case in this most unpredictable of seasons, the music blared in the Pirates' clubhouse, no trace of the 12-2 loss the previous night, no worries about the glaring run differential that makes their 17-22 record look far more ominous than it does at third place in the Central Division standings.
"We don't worry if we lose, 20-0 or 2-0," Milledge said, essentially repeating something he said after that historic 20-0 loss to Milwaukee. "It's still a loss, and you still have to show up the next day and get the job done. We feel like we do that."
"There's something to be said for this, you know?" Meek said. "We don't have a lot of rah-rah guys in here. We just have a lot of guys who don't like to lose, and we came right back and beat the best pitcher in baseball."
Go figure.
And here is one more figure: By splitting this two-game set, the Pirates went 3-2 through Chicago and here, marking their first winning road trip since going 5-2 through Denver and Houston Aug. 20-26, 2007, and, hence, the first in Russell's tenure as manager.
"My wife just texted me that," Russell said, smiling. "That's nice, too."
The Pirates open a five-game homestand with nemesis Milwaukee tonight.
Dejan Kovacevic: dkovacevic@post-gazette.com. Find more at PBC Blog.
Today
Game: Pirates vs. Milwaukee Brewers, 7:05 p.m., PNC Park.
TV, radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
Pitching: LHP Brian Burres (2-1, 5.00) vs. LHP Randy Wolf (3-3, 4.66).
Key matchup: The Pirates vs. Wolf ... at the plate? The Brewers' pitcher is 4 for 6 with a double against them this season.
Of note: Wolf, of course, was pitcher of record in the historic 20-0 loss April 22. The Pirates lost the first four meetings between these teams by a combined 53-4 but have taken the past two.
• The PBC Blog
• Box score
• Statistics
• Standings
• Minor-league report
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