James McDonald worked 6 1/3
scoreless frames and the Pittsburgh bullpen proved equally effective as the
Pirates posted a 1-0 victory and shut out the Cincinnati Reds for the second
consecutive night.
McDonald (6-4) allowed four hits and walked three
while striking out seven before being pulled with the bases loaded. Joe Beimel
and Chris Resop closed the door in the seventh and Joel Hanrahan worked around a
pair of ninth-inning singles to record his 28th save of the season.
Josh
Harrison scored the game’s lone run in the first inning courtesy of an Andrew
McCutchen groundout.
The result spoiled a masterful performance by Mike
Leake (8-5), who allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out four
over six innings.
The NL Central-leading Pirates, who will look for the
sweep of this three- game set on Wednesday, have won nine of their last 12
games.
Harrison reached with a one-out single, advanced to third on Neil
Walker’s ground-rule double to center and crossed the plate on McCutchen’s
groundout to short.
The Reds left runners on the corners in the second,
wasted a Ryan Hanigan double in the fifth and left the bases loaded in the
seventh.
McDonald was chased after sandwiching a pair of walks around a
Chris Heisey sac bunt and a Fred Lewis single, but Beimel entered and struck out
Jay Bruce, before Resop induced Drew Stubbs into a groundout to first.
“We always think we’re gonna get the job done,” said Beimel. “That was
the case tonight between everybody out there, you know, all our pitchers. We had
the timely hit and that’s all we needed.”
Resop threw a perfect eighth,
and Hanrahan gave up two-out singles to pinch- hitter Ramon Hernandez and
Hanigan before getting Bruce to ground out to second to end the game.
“We had some action there at the end,” said Reds manager Dusty Baker.
“We had some runners on base earlier in the game and, like I said, we just
couldn’t get that hit. Boy, this is frustrating when you’re not scoring runs.”
Game Notes
The Pirates are a season-high seven games over
.500…The Pirates entered tonight’s contest with a half-game lead in the NL
Central, marking the latest point in a season that the club has led the division
since 1992…Pittsburgh is 7-1 against Cincinnati this year…Walker extended
his hit streak to 13 games…The Reds have allowed 66 first-inning runs this
season
