The Pittsburg Pirates lost to the Chicago Cubs once again and this time it was by the score of 7-3.  The Pirates record now stands at 3-6 after being swept by the Cubs in the three game series.

The Pirates did have a 3-1 lead after the first inning, but after that they couldn’t get anything going against the Cubs pitchers.  Freddy Sanchez, Xavier Nady, and Jose Bautista all had one RBI each for the Pirates.

Starting pitcher Matt Morris did pitch seven innings but he allowed 11 hits and seven runs.  Only four of the seven runs were earned however as the two Pirates errors really hurt.  Evan Meek pitched final two innings of the game without allowing a run.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates battled back in the 9th and 14th innings, but were not able to do it in the 15th inning as the Chicago Cubs went onto win 6-4.  It was a pretty bad game for he Pirates up until the 8th inning as they were only able to get one hit off of Cubs starter Ryan Dempster.  From the 8th inning on though, the Pirates hit the ball a little better.

Going into the bottom of the 9th the Pirates were down one run, and then Jason Bay took a Kerry Wood fastball deep and over the all for a game tieying home run.  The teams would not score again until the 14th inning when the Pirates were down by two runs and Adam LaRoche hit a two-run home run to tie the game once again.  But in the 15th inning, the Pirates were not able to answer the Cubs two runs in the top of the inning and lost the ballgame 6-4.

The Pirates battled but they just didn’t have enough.  Anytime you only have one hit going into the 8th inning, more then likely you are going to lose the game.  The Pirates got lucky that the even made it to extra innings and had a chance to win.

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You have to give credit to the Pirates who battled back from a 7-0 deficit before losing the game 10-8 to the Chicago Cubs.  The Pirates ran out of pitchers and had to have Evan Meek in the ballgame in the 12th inning, and he pretty much walked in the winning runs.

I’m not going to stress about the 12 inning with Meek in the ballgame, the coaching staff didn’t have any other choices really.  I still like how hard they played and battled today, I think they can learn from this game and become a better team down the road.

The Pirates and Cubs will have an off day tomorrow, and then play on Wednesday night.  We will see how the Pirates respond after tomorrows off day.

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The Pittsburgh Pirates lost a heart breaking game to the Florida Marlins on Friday evening as Mike Jacobs hit a walk off homerun for the Marlins.  The Pirates once again played in a one run ballgame and came up just short.

Chris Gomez’s two-run single and Nate McLouth’s run-scoring double gave Pittsburgh’s a three-run second inning but the Marlins quickly tied it up at three in the bottom half of the inning.  In the fourth inning, Ryan Doumit connected for his first homerun and put the Pirates up 4-3 but that didnt’ last long as the Marlins once again tied the game in the bottom half of the inning.  There wasn’t any other scoring in the game until the Jacob’s walk off homerun.

Matt Morris didn’t pitch too badly as he gave up four earned runs on eight hits.  He kept the team in the ballgame, and that is all you can ask for by your starting pitcher.  Franquelis Osoria took the lose for the Pirates.

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It took ten innings but the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night by the score of 4-3.  On a night where the Braves had to go straight to the bullpen due to an injury to Mike Hampton, the Pirates knew they would have some opportunities and eventually took advantage of them.

Xavier Nady singled in Nyjer Morgan for the game winning run in the top of the 10th inning.  Nady had a great series against the Braves, lets hope he continues to stay hot during the next series.

Zach Duke shut out the Braves for five innings but gave up three runs on three hits.  Tyler Yates earned the win by pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

The Pirates do have to worry about an injury to Jack Wilson however.  He left the game in the 7th inning while running out a ball.  Hopefully he just tweaked the calf, and he will be day to day.

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