Pirates beat up on Dempster and Cubs, win 14-7

Apparently, the Pirates team all got together for breakfast and had a bowl of this:

 

The Pirates made a complete 180 from Monday’s 14-2 loss and beat up on the Cubbies for the 14-7 win at Wrigley Field.

The Pirates’ 14 runs is a season high on the road. –Not since May 31, 2008, when the Pirates won 14-4 in St. Louis, had they scored that many runs in a road game.

 

Having played a very horrible game the night before, the Pirates had a bit of fire in them when they headed to the field. 

Ryan Dempster –who had a 1.36 ERA in the month of August– was chased after throwing 70 pitches in just three innings. He allowed seven runs; a season high, on seven hits, walked three and struck out four. Dempster also pitched his shortest outing of the season as well.

That wasn’t a good job, a good performance by me,” Dempster said afterward. “We should’ve won that game. We scored seven runs, but it’s hard when your starting pitcher, being me, puts us in a hole and it’s 7-0. That’s a lot to overcome. I didn’t execute pitches, didn’t get ahead of hitters. No explanation, I just didn’t get it done.”

“That felt pretty good,” said Andrew McCutchen. “We hit balls hard, they found holes, hit some out. Things are actually starting to go our way. We had just an all-around great game.”

 ”We had a tough night last night and we evened it out,” Ronny Cedeno said. “Offensively, defensively, pitching — we put everything together. We’ve got so much talent here. We can do some things.”

The Pirates combined to score 14 runs off 15 hits. They didn’t just have one or two good innings, they continued to put runs on the board inning after inning. (Four runs in the first, one in the second, two in the third, two in the sixth, and three in the seventh)

Andrew McCutchen went 3-for-5 with two runs, two RBI and one walk.

Jose Tabata went 3-for-5 with three runs, two RBI and a walk.

Neil Walker went 4-for-5, including a home run (8), with three runs, and four RBI. Walker was also only a triple away from the Cycle.

Garrett Jones went 1-for-4, including a home run (20), with one run, three RBI and a walk.

Pedro Alvarez went 1-for-5 with a run and a RBI. 

We can take a lot of confidence from this game,” Walker said. “We knew with the elements here and type of ballpark it is that scoring runs early is nice, but at the same time that you have to make sure you’re adding on. We did that. It was a great team effort.” 

 

Not only were the Pirates hitting and scoring runs, Jeff Karstens pitched a great game as well. Throwing 87pitches through six innings, gave up just two runs on four hits and struck out six –a career high for Karstens.

“Fourteen runs, my job is easy,” Karstens said. “For the most part, missing that start made my arm feel a lot better. Now it’s just a matter of grinding it out and getting through the season.”

“We might not be winning the games that we think we should be winning, but the approach at the plate and the pitching, I think the confidence is coming,” Karstens said. “It’s a matter of turning the corner.”   

 

The Pirates were leading 14-2 (the exact same score they lost to the previous night) until Sean Gallagher surrendered five runs off five hits through 1.2 innings.

Chris Resop pitched a perfect ninth inning, quickly proving to the staff that he would be a great seventh inning man for the 2011 season.  

 

 

 

Other News and Notes:

• The Pirates won the first and only road win in the month of August on Tuesday.
• The Cubs have 101 errors so far this season, the most in the major leagues. Starlin Castro has 21.
• Ryan Dempster has a 99 career wins, when he hits the 100th mark he would be only the fourth canadian born pitcher to do so.
• Andrew McCutchen stole his 50th career base in the second inning, his 28th on the season.
• May 16th, against the Cubbies was the last time the Pirates scored 9 runs on the road this season.
• The Pirates snapped a streak of 204 innings without scoring more than three runs, dating back to Aug. 16.
• Andrew McCutchen is hitting 458 (22-48) vs. the Cubs in 2010. Only two NL players have at least 40 AB vs. any team this year with a higher avg. (Via @bucsinsider)
• The Altoona Curve won the  EL Western Division title, the second regular-season division title in franchise history.
•  The Pirates sending C Tony Sanchez, OF Andrew Lambo, INF Jordy Mercer as well as 3 pitchers TBA to Arizona Fall League.