Ohlendorf “lucky” after comebacker to the head, Pirates beat the Rockies 6-2

I remember exactly where I was when I saw Chris Jakubauskas take a comebacker off his head earlier this season.

 

I felt that unfortunate sick to my stomach, scared to death feeling in the first inning of yesterday’s game against the Rockies. Ross Ohlendorf took a line drive from Tulu off the side of his head. It bounced clear into right field. The crazy part? Ohly didn’t even fall to the ground. He just stood there, completely fine, we even saw him laugh. An impact that hard and it didn’t even hurt the poor guy? Talk about a tough ball player. He was taken out of the game after pitching just 2/3 of an inning.

He was taken to the ER for precautionary reasons. The CT scan cleared Ohlendorf of any trauma to the brain, and was diagnosed was a deep bruise and some abrasion on the right side of his head. He said he felt “just fine” after the game. The team plans to monitor him for concussion symptoms. Ross returned to the ballpark in the sixth inning, shaking hands with the players and smiling.

“I think he got, obviously, very lucky,” manager John Russell said. “It shook him a little bit. We’ll have to reevaluate him through the night and [on Thursday]. We’ll see how he’s doing. Again, I think he’s very fortunate.”

“Considering I got hit in the head, I feel like I am really lucky with where it hit me,” he said. “I feel fine. I guess I got lucky.”

“I saw it hit him and I asked someone where the ball went, because I started running out of the dugout as soon as it hit him,” Russell said. “You could tell he was dazed a little bit.”

“At first, I was kind of shocked,” Ohlendorf said. “My first reaction was just surprise, and then upset, because I knew they were going to probably want to take me out.”

“He was upbeat and had a little smirk on his face and seemed with it,” Jones said. “Those types of plays are always tough to see. Ross must have a thick skull, because that ball was hit hard.”

Afterward, Tulowitzki sent a message to the Pirates’ clubhouse seeking Ohlendorf’s phone number.

Ohlendorf sure did get lucky. Jakubasuskas was immediately placed on the 15-day DL and still hasn’t came off.

 

Sean Gallagher replaced Ohlendorf in the first inning. He pitched three scoreless innings, 57 pitches, giving up zero hits, struck out four and walked three. Gallagher got his first win as a Bucco and his first win since Sept 21, 2009 against, who else? The Pirates! 

Wil Ledezma made his Pirates debut in the fourth inning, and boy was it a good one. Hitting 94-95-95 on the gun he struck out the first guy he faced, Olivio. He pitched scoreless and hittless through 1.1 innings.

The rest of the guys from the Pen shut the door. Carrasco, Hanrahan and Dotel each pitched scoreless innings. Lopez was the only reliever to give up a run throught the entire game. Kudos for the great job they did.

Garrett Jones went 4-for-4 on the night, with two Homeruns, a triple away from the cycle. He drove in three of the six runs scored.

“I felt good today,” Jones said. “Our bullpen had to pick up a pretty heavy load. We were just trying to score as much as we can to help them.”

They continued to play great as a team. McCutchen went 3-for-4, Walker 1-for-5 with two RBI, Alvarez 1-for-3 with a BB and a RBI. The Bucs scored six runs off 11 hits.

Another scary moment came in the fifth inning.

 

 

Andrew McCutchen slammed into the wall, making an unbelieveable catch. He immediately grabbed his shoulder and was starting yelling, angry at himself. I thought he re-injured his AC joint. (he missed six games recently from it) After the trainer and JR came out to make sure he was okay, he stayed in the game. Thank goodness he was okay.

“It’s just one of those things with it being sprained and healing, you’ve just got to give it some time,” said McCutchen, who will be reevaluated on Thursday. “It’s something that I can play through. I’m fine now.”

After the game he was asked If he had any thoughts of taking it a little easier on that fly ball: ” No chance. No Chance. I took it easy for five days where I didn’t do anything so I’m not going to let anything drop out there. If I got a chance to catch it, I’m going to catch it.”

^^ That is one of the many reasons I love Cutch. He has so much heart and love for the game.

 

Last night was the first time since May 14th and 15th that the Pirates won back to back road wins.

 

The Pirates take on the Rockies today at 3:10, looking for the Series sweep and to improve their record to one game ABOVE .500 after the All-Star Break.

Pitching Matchup:

Paul Maholm 6-8, 4.13 ERA

A four-run second inning handed Maholm the loss Friday vs. the Padres. Maholm has been mired in a good-start, bad-start routine going back to June 23 at Texas. Two of his last six outings have lasted fewer than four innings.

VS

Ubaldo Jimenez 15-2, 2.75 ERA

Jimenez will try to rebound after what was one of his poorer outings in what has otherwise been a magical season. On Saturday against the Phillies, the righty lasted just two innings, surrendering six earned runs.

 

 

 

Zach Duke was interviewed on yesterday’s Pirates Pre-game show by Greg Brown. In case you missed it, here is what they talked about.

Greg Brown: “We are with last night’s starting pitcher, and winner of course, Zach Duke. Six innings, three hits, a couple of solo homeruns, the only blemish against another strong start. Boy, your feeling good aren’t you Zach?”

Zach Duke: “Yeah, I like where I’m at. The ball is coming out of my hand well, my location has been pretty solid as of late and hopefully i can stay where I’m at.”

GB: “Last night that command was outstanding, wasn’t it? That ball was doing just about everything you wanted it to do.”

ZD: “It was, you know, especially early on I was able to establish my fastball command and really hitting the down and away spot really well and really everything just worked off of that.”

GB: “Zach you said, it was quoted in the papers that, after spending some time on the Disabled list, its not that you necessarily feel better but you just feel like your at where you should be right?”

ZD: “Yeah. I physically feel right again and mentally I feel like I don’t have to try to do more or create extra to try to compenstate for the arm, I feel like myself which is a nice place to be.”

GB: “Do you feel like your stronger a little bit since that time off?”

ZD: “I don’t know about stronger, I feel like I’m still having to build up my arm strength from not throwing for a month. It’s a little tough to say I feel stronger, but I do feel consistant mechanically which is allowing me to control the ball the way I want it.”

GB: “Everybody always asks the question, you know six innings, could you have gone more? But you just mentioned you are trying to build up arm strength, right?”

ZD: “Yeah. I could have probally gone a little more but the way the bullpen has been, with Meek, Hanrahan, Dotel, they shut the door everytime so we didn’t want to risk anything and possibly have me go out and not be able to pitch again.I’m glad it worked out the way it did and obvisously got a win and that’s the most important thing.”

GB”How about that defense last night?”

ZD: “They were great. Andrew McCutchen ran down everything and the infield played great as well. Hopefully we can keep playing that way.”

GB: “How much fun is that to deliver a pitch that your not real sure about, you turn around and you see this guy flying around all over the place in the outfield?”

ZD: “It takes a lot of pressure of you as a pitcher that’s for sure. Anytime you got a guy like him in centerfield that can run down everything, you have a lot more margin for error and you don’t try to be so perfect. It takes a lot of pressure off you and lets you just kind of relax and do your thing.”

GB: “Zach, this is the week for trade rumors, the deadline coming up Saturday, you put it aside?”

ZD: “I don’t think I’ll be traded. I haven’t even thought about it. I don’t know if we will make any moves. From what they’ve said to us in Spring Training on is the guys in the clubhouse are the ones that they want here so, if something happens I’ll be suprised.”

GB: “Hey, speaking of rumors. There is a rumor going around that you, and Kristin are expecting the first Duke in the family. Your first child, when’s that?”

ZD:” We are expecting. It’s due in Feb right twoards the start of Spring Training so maybe I’ll get a little extra time to report to camp. It’s a very exciting time for us. Thankfully everything has gone according to plan, the baby’s healthy, Kristin’s healthy so we’re really excited.”

 

 They are such a beautiful couple, and will have such a gorgeous baby. Congrats to them!

 

Other Pirates News:

•  NL Rookie Ranks (Since All-Star break) Entering Wed:

Neil Walker                                          Jose Tabata

.422 AVG – 3rd                                     .375 AVG – 8th

6 runs – T-8th                                        12 Runs – 1st

19 Hits – 3rd                                          18 Hits – 4th

XBH 6 – T-4th                                         XBH 6 – T-4th

• Brandon Moss deserves another shot -PiratesProspects    
• RISP Batting Average (NL Leaders)

Lastings Milledge PIT .388 

Adrian Gonzalez SD .384

Angel Bagan NYM .375

Jonny Gomez CIN .373

James Loney LAD .357

• Minor League Update:

Brandon Moss 2-for-5, HR (17) 4 RBI, .268 AVG

Alex Presley 2-for-4, 2RBI, SB, 2 RUNS .352 AVG

Justin Wilson (W 8-6) 6IP, 6H, 3R, 1ER, 4K, 2BB, 3.06 ERA

Nate Baker (ND) 5.1 IP, 5H, 1R 0ER, 5K, 2BB, 2.20 ERA

D’Arnaud 3-for-4, 2B, 2 SB, Run

Hague 2-for-5, HR (12), 2 Runs

• Derek Hanks was promoted to Triple-A Indy. In 26 games he had a 1.82 ERA.
• The Pirates bullpen has been lights out this season. Want proof? Check out these stats:

31-9 when the Pirates are tied or leading after the sixth inning

24-3 when leading after the seventh

29-1 when leading after the eigth

• Tweet from Hanrahan4467: Big win for us today! That’s a road series win too! We needed that!

And also looks like Ross is going to be ok, seemed fine after the game, and Cutch is feeling good too, very scary for both! 

• Aki Iwamura had CT scans come back negative after collision with 1B for Class AAA Indianapolis.