Despite the best efforts of the Arson Squad of Salomon Torres and John Grabow-the Pittsburgh Pirates held on to win over the Houston Astros 5-3,completing a 3 game sweep of the Astros.
The Pirates have won all 6 meetings vs Houston this season.
The star of the game was Jonah Bayliss,who got the win in relief to improve his record to 2-1 on the season.
Bayliss relieved Tony Armas in the Houston 6th,with the bases loaded and no one out.
Bayliss got Brad Ausmus to pop up and Wandy Rodriguez to rap into a double play to allow the Pirates to get out of the inning without allowing a run.
In the Pirate sixth,a Jason Bay single scored Jose Castillo and Chris Duffy to turn 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the 8th,the Pirates scored 3 insurance runs on a Xavier Nady walk and a Ryan Doumit single that scored two runs to increase the score to 5-1.
Doumit was called up late last night from AAA Indianapolis to replace the injured Humberto Cota,who was placed on the DL.
But Salomon Torres came in to pitch the 9th and after retiring the 1st batter,quickly loaded the bases.
Torres then allowed a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-2 and was then replaced by John Grabow.
Grabow allowed a single to Mike Lamb,which cut the lead to 5-3 and put the tying run on base by walking Morgan Ensberg.
Grabow then retired Adam Everett on a fielders choice to end the game and pick his 1st save of the season.
Dave Littlefield in the off-season raved about his bullpen as a strength.
I do not see it that way.I like the youngsters Capps and Bayliss,but I have never liked Grabow at all,Chacon is awful,Wasdin is worse and Torres simply is not a closer.
A DL perceived strength is actually a weakness.
Not a bad outing today from Tony Armas.
Armas worked his way out of a rough 1st inning by only allowing 1 run in a bad situation and was helped by Bayliss in the 6th,but otherwise not too bad at all.
This type of performance is about what you hope to get out of your 5th starter.
Nice to see Ryan Doumit back in the lineup.I am hoping Jim Tracy can be creative and find him time to play in different spots,since he is so high on Paulino..
Today's win evens the Pirates record at .500 for the season at 10-10.
Pittsburgh is 6-0 vs Houston and 4-10 vs the other teams thus far.
The Pirates continue the homestand over the weekend vs the Reds tomorrow at 7;00
Ian Snell for the Pirates against Eric "Longball" Milton.
Photo Credit-Bill Gentry-MiLB.Com
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