Just like the night before, the Bucs got the scoring started in the top of the 1st, this time via Aramis Ramirez's 2 run homer, his first since returning to the Steel City. The Bucs added one more run in the top of the 3rd on another dinger, this time by Gregory Polanco, his 7th of the season, increasing the lead to 3-0. That's how it stayed until the bottom of the 7th. Charlie Morton had been stellar on the mound for 6 innings, but he ran out of gas in the 7th.
Juan Uribe led off the inning with his 12th home-run, closing the gap to 3-1. Later in the inning, with one man on and 1 out, Michael Conforto tied things up with his 2nd homer of the year, chasing Charlie Morton in the process. Aside from the 7th inning, Morton was fantastic, finishing with a line of 6.1 innings pitched, 4 hits, 1 walk, 9 strikeouts, and 2 earned runs (one run was a result of a throwing error from Ramirez). Joakim Soria relieved Morton and finished the inning without allowing any additional damage.
The game remained tied at 3 for quite some time after that. In the bottom of the 11th, Clint Hurdle called on middle reliever Joe Blanton, and Blanton had what is to this point his best game in a Pirate uniform. Blanton pitched 3 innings, allowing 1 hit, 1 walk and striking out an impressive 6 batters while keeping the game tied. Blanton ran into little trouble in the 12th when, with 2 outs, Lucas Duda drew a pinch-hit walk and Ruben Tejada singled, bringing Wilmer Flores to the plate. With no room for error, Blanton struck out Flores to end the threat, in what is my pick for play of the game. As for my game MVP, it was a very close race between Blanton and Gregroy Polanco, who was 3-6 with a home run, but I'm picking Blanton, who did everything that he needed to do when one mistake would have wrecked the whole night.
The Bucs broke through in the 14th. The inning started on a lead off double from Francisco Cervelli. What happened next would best be described as a way to teach little league baseball players what NOT to do. Starling Marte grounded a ball to the right side, and rather than throwing to 1st base like he should have, Mets 2nd baseman Daniel Murphy decided to go 3rd base to try to get Cervelli, even though there was nobody out and Murphy had very slim odds to get Cervelli at 3rd. Cervelli easily beat out the wide throw, bringing pinch-hitter Chris Stewart to the plate with no outs and runners on 1st and 3rd. Stewart delivered with a single to center field, scoring pinch-runner Pedro Florimon for the go-ahead run. The Bucs added insurance later that inning when Sean Rodriguez's bloop single scored Marte. Mark Melancon shut the door in the 9th for his 37th save of the season and the Bucs won their 3rd game in a row, by a score of 5-3.
Joe Blanton got the much deserved win, improving to 2-0 since joining the team in late July. Sean Gilmartin got the loss out of relief, falling to 1-1 on the year. The Cards and Cubs refuse to lose, so the Pirates are still 6 games back of St. Louis in the NL Central standings and 1.5 games ahead of the Cubs for the 1st wildcard spot. The Pirates will conclude their series with the Mets on Sunday at 1:10. Jeff Locke will take the hill for the Bucs, opposing Matt Harvey for the Mets.
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