Game Recap #24 Houston Astros @ Pittsburgh Pirates

It almost seems we're followed the Houston Astros around lately, having seen them at their home, in Chicago jsut yesterday, and now in Pittsburgh, where they play another often mediocre team, the Pirates. Despite the stigma of being a losing franchise, the Pirates are again over .500 near the halfway point of the season, and they may be hoping to hold onto such a mark unlike last season's second half collapse. A major player in this surprising surge of efficiency is starter James McDonald, who has put up impressive numbers all year and will get the ball today. Things didn't start so well for McDonald here though, as he walked Jose Altuve to begin the game, and then walked Brian Bogusevic, which set Altuve up to score early on a single by J.D. Martinez. The inefficiency cleared up a bit in the early and middle innings, allowing Pittsburgh's offense to do some damage in the fourth inning against Astros starter Jordan Lyles. The rally began as All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen singled aboard, followed by a two-run home run off the foul pole by Garrett Jones. Not to be outdone, the next batter, Neil Walker, put a solo home run off the pole. Casey McGehee then double his way on base, and scored on a single by Clint Barmes. Lyles labored into the fifth inning, where everything turned to happy hour for the Pirates, as Drew Sutton tripled before scoring on a double from McCutchen, who scored on a double by Jones, good enough to end Lyles' day. Walker then was walked by reliever Rhiner Cruz, and moved to second while pushing Jones to third on a wild pitch. Another McGehee double drove both of them in. Lyles finished with four innings of work, yielding nine hits and seven earned runs but no walks, and six strikeouts. The Astros got one back in the sixth inning as Scott Moore hit a solo shot into the right field seats. Pittsburgh was undeterred, striking back against Fernando Abad in the bottom of the sixth. Abad worked himself into a jam by giving up consecutive singles to Alex Presley, Sutton, and McCutchen, which set up a fourth single from Jones to set Presley home. The damage was lessened by Walker's inning-ending double play. Dan Carpenter worked the seventh for Houston, and he kept his runs column clean, despite allowing a single to McGehee and plunking Michael McKenry. McDonald was done after seven strong innings for the Pirates, in which he gave up four hits and five walks in an erratic show for pitch control, but only two runners scored, and he struck out four. Pittsburgh got a couple more runs in the eighth inning as Fernando Rodriguez allowed singles to McCutchen and Jones before a Walker double plated both of them. The Pirates handed the ball to Jared Hughes for the eighth and ninth innings, which he worked through with no trouble for an 11-2 final. As an interesting side note, eighteen of the nineteen baserunners for Pittsburgh today came from the top six guys in the order, with the #7 hitter Barmes being the only one outside of this group to get aboard. Of the top six, Walker, Presley, and Sutton all had two-hits games (the latter two each having a triple in the mix), while McGehee had a three-hit performance, and both McCutchen and Jones had four hits apiece.