It was an ugly day-night double header in Cincinnati. Making up a rained out game, the Pirates were beaten in front of a sparse crowd in the afternoon. They returned for the eveing game and were beaten again.
In the opener, the ML debut of Pirates starter Daniel McCutchen was pretty solid. He gave up four singles and a homer (to Drew Stubbs) in six innings, allowing three runs and whiffing five. He was matchd up against Kip Wells, who was also good – six innings and just two runs allowed. But, Jason Jaramillo singled in the 7th off of Carlos Fisher, tying the contest and causing neither starter to get a decision.
But Jesse Chavez allowed two singles and a fly ball to right that moved Darnell McDonald to third. Then Chavez uncorked a wild pitch allowing McDonald to score with the game ending run.
The second game started out rough. Paul Maholm was tagged for three runs in the first. The Reds used five hits and left the bases loaded while batting around. Past the first inning, other than a homer from Brandon Phillips in the third, Maholm was okay. Drew Stubbs added a homer in the night cap in the 8th off of Chavez.
Andrew McCutchen’s solo homer was the highlight of a three run sixth inning, but the Pirates could do little else against Johnny Cueto. He struck out five and allowed one run in 5+ innings. Nick Masset won the opener for Cincy.
The Good
Danny Bautista tossed two scoreless innings in relief of Maholm. He is unscored upon in 2009.
In addition to a good outing, Daniel McCutchen collected his first ML hit and his first ML RBI.
The Bad
Getting swept by a fifth place team.
Being in the cellar.
Being five losses away from securing yet another losing season. It is and has been a foregone conclusion.
The Rest
Last Bucco pitcher to get a hit in his ML debut was Maholm way back on 8/30/05.
You have to go way way back to 6-24-96 and Elmer Dessens to find the last Pirate pitcher to get a hit and an RBI in their first appearance in the Show.
Cueto now has four wins against the Pirates, his most against any team.
Maholm had not lost to Cincy since April 2007 when the Reds beat him twice.
This was the fourth time that Wells started against the Pirates and he was 3-1 in those outings coming into this afternoon’s game.
