A.J. Burnett’s strong start gives Pirates momentum says Clint Hurdle

by C. Trent Rosecrans

http://cincinnati.com

September 27, 2013

A.J. Burnett improved to 7-6 against the Reds in his career with a dominating performance on Friday. [USA Today Sports photo]

Some managers may downplay talk of momentum in baseball, but not Pittsburgh’s Clint Hurdle. Hurdle watched starter A.J. Burnett hold the Reds to five hits and a single run over eight innings and give the Pirates a 4-1 victory in the three-game series with Cincinnati and said it could carry over to the rest of the series.

“It gives us some momentum, there’s no doubt about that,” Hurdle said following Friday’s win. “It gets everyone’s awareness peaked up, you watch a man go out there and not just compete, but pretty much dominate through eight innings. It sparks everybody, that’s what we were looking for from him.”

Burnett’s pitching, and Marlon Byrd’s bat helped give Pittsburgh the upper hand in the battle to host Tuesday’s Wild Card Game, which will now officially be between the Reds and Pirates as the Cardinals clinched the National League Central with a 7-0 victory over the Cubs on Friday. If the Pirates win just one of the remaining two games at Great American Ball Park, Pittsburgh will host its first postseason game since 1992 on Tuesday.

Burnett, who struck out 12 over seven innings in a win last weekend, cruised through eight innings, retiring the final 10 batters he faced before giving way to closer Jason Grilli.

The veteran pitcher’s attitude has rubbed off on his teammates, setting a tone.

“We feed off of him, it shouldn’t surprise anyone, he goes out there and competes and gives us a chance to win a ball game,” said Pedro Alvarez, who hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to increase the Pirates’ lead to three.

The Pirates also managed to make some defensive plays behind Burnett to keep the lead, including a diving catch by Starling Marte to rob Joey Votto of a hit in the third.

“I challenged them to hustle like broke men, like men that had no money,” Hurdle said. “I don’t know if (Marte) knew what it meant.”

But Marte showed that kind of desire — as did Burnett.

After Hurdle told Burnett he was coming out after he got Ryan Ludwick to fly out to left to end the eighth, the veteran right-hander got in his manager’s face. But five minutes later, he was hugging Hurdle.

“I’m coming off after a good eighth, in my mind I’m going back out. I don’t know what the score is, I don’t know what my pitch count is, I just know I want to go back out,” Burnett said. “You’re in the zone, you’re that focused and that locked in, so I know the gig — that’s why we have closers on these ball clubs. The moment of coming off and being locked in. It took me a little bit to get over it, but I got over it.”

Hurdle said handing the ball over to Grilli, who only returned to the closer’s role last week, had another purpose.

“I felt (Burnett) had given us everything we could ask for. He believed he had a little bit more,” Hurdle said. “I also wanted to reestablish the confidence in our closer, which I think is imperative going down the stretch and into the playoffs. He’s got a three-run lead based on the fact that A.J. was so efficient, so you give him a chance to go ahead and put his foot down and build some positive momentum as well.”

If there’s such a thing, the Pirates certainly have it going into Saturday’s game.