Bowker’s clutch hit blows open game, Bucs beat red birds 7-2

It’s a moment baseball players dream of and John Bowker lived it during Tuesday’s night’s victory over the Cardinals. Bases loaded, two outs and a close 4-2 ball game. Bowker layed off the first pitch fastball by MacDougal.

“I just wanted to see what he had,” Bowker said. “I had never faced him before.”

He took the next pitch (fastball) and hit it into the left center gap, a bases clearing double, giving the Pirates a 7-2 lead.

“I’ll tell you what: When he hits the ball hard, he hits it really hard,” Russell said. “It was a great sign.”

Is John Bowker trying to make an impression on the Pirates staff?

“Yeah, I think everyone’s trying to make an impression. Whatever role that is. Tonight coming off the bench, definitely trying to.”

Garrett Jones is hitting well again after slumping horribly in August. Jones went 3-for-5 with three RBI and a monster home run he hit in the first inning –his 21st of the season–

“It was up,” Suppan said of the 1-0 changeup. “He’s a type of guy that can get his hands extended. I was trying to have some depth on the changeup and it just stayed up.”

“He feels a lot more comfortable at the plate and you can see it,” Russell said. “He’s getting to some balls that he wasn’t a few weeks ago.”

Brian Burres picked up his fourth win of the season after pitching 5.2 innings. He allowed two runs –one earned– on four hits, walked three and struck out zero. With Burres’ last start of the season he finishes (4-4) the only Pirates starter to finish at the .500 mark.

“When he keeps the ball down, he can be tough,” Russell said. “He got through some jams. We made some plays behind him on a couple really hard hit balls. He hung in there.”

A decent outing from Burres who was pulled after just two innings of work his last start.

“Last time, I got into a little bit of trouble and couldn’t get out of it,” Burres said, insisting that his game plan didn’t change. “This time, I made some better pitches and the defense made some good plays behind me.”

Notes:

• With the 7-2 Victory the Pirates snapped a five-game losing streak on the road as well as eight straight losses at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
• Andrew McCutchen reached safely for his 23rd straight game.
• Ronny Cedeno’s error in the third inning was his fourth straight game with an error.
• Chris Resop made his first appearance since September 16th (right elbow) pitching a 1/3 of an inning, striking out one.
• Evan Meek pitched a scoreless eighth inning, striking out the side which included Pujols and Holliday.
• Alex Presley picked up his first Major League steal.