The Pittsburgh Pirates saw yet another pitchers duel in game four of the 2012 season. Right-hander Kevin Correia took the mound at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Tuesday against Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. The lefty was the third Cy Young winner that the club faced over their first four games of the season.
Correia was solid for the Pirates in his 2012 season debut. After struggling at PNC Park last season, Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle elected to give Correia the first start on the road in order to get him some momentum into season. It proved to pay off, as Correia became the fourth Pirates starter to give the club a quality start.
The 31-year-old allowed just one run on four hits over six frames. He walked two and struck out three while throwing 81 pitches, 52 for strikes.
The lone run the Dodgers were able to score off Correia came in the first inning. Infielder Dee Gordon lead off the frame with a broken bat base hit into right field. Gordon didn’t waste any time on the bases paths. He took off after Correia threw his first pitch to Mark Ellis to easily swipe second base. Gordon advanced to third after a groundout by Ellis, and scored after Matt Kemp hit a groundout to plate the only run allowed by Correia.
Correia followed Erik Bedard, Jeff Karstens and James McDonald in the starting rotation to give the club the fourth solid outing to start the young season. All four pitched at least six frames in their starts and have combined to allow just five runs over 25.0 innings.
Kershaw held the Pirates bats to just two hits over six frames while striking out seven. The Pirates, however, were finally able to plate a run off the lefty in the 7th inning.
For the second time in as many games, Matt Hague was able to tie the game up for the Pirates. In the Bucs eventual 5-4 walkoff win on Sunday, Hague connected for a pinch-hit RBI single to left in the 8th inning to tie the game at 4. On Tuesday in Los Angeles, Hague came through again, this time in the 7th inning.
Alex Presley and Andrew McCutchen started the rally off lefty Kershaw by hitting back-to-back singles. It marked the first time the Bucs had more than one hit off Kershaw in the same inning. Casey McGehee hit a fly out to deep right field allowing both runners to tag up and advance to second and third. Hague hit a RBI grounder to short to tie the game at 1 for his second career RBI.
Right-hander Jason Grilli took the mound in the 8th inning to face the heart of the Dodgers lineup. After striking out his first two, Grilli hung a 2-1 slider that Andre Ethier took deep for a solo-shot to right field for the go-ahead run. The earned run was the first allowed by the Pirates pen this season (10.2 innings). With the 2-1 loss, the Pirates fall to 2-2 on the season.
Game Notes:
- Relief: Juan Cruz: IP, 2H, 2K; Jason Grilli: IP, H, R, 2K
- Casey McGehee led off the second frame with a triple out to deep center field. McGehee now has three extra base hits already this season over three games.
- Alex Presley was the only Pirate to pick up multiple hits on the day (2-for-4).
- The Pirates combined for 10 strikeouts against the Dodgers arms.
Wednesday Game Info:
- Left-hander Erik Bedard will make his second start of the season. Bedard will face right-hander Chad Billingsley of Los Angeles. The game starts at 10:00 p.m. ET.
