Pirates hold off Padres 4-3

The Pittsburgh Pirates shot to the lead early against Aaron Harang with a pair of first inning two run homers off the bats of Garrett Jones (6) and Chris Snyder (1),but the Bucs would score no more runs and watched the Padres chip closer,but fell short as the Pirates escaped with a 4-3 win in San Diego.
James McDonald allowed two runs in six innings to even his record at 2-2 with Joel Hanrahan earning his ninth save of the season with a scoreless ninth.
The series continues tonight at 10:05 at Petco Park..

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Jeff Karstens (2-1 3.57 ERA) at San Diego: Mat Latos (0-4 4.98 ERA) 10:05

Pirate Hooks

1) Keep in mind that I didn't see the game,but listened on XM,but the biggest play of the game didn't seem so big at the time as Garrett Jones threw Brad Hawpe out at the plate to finish the fifth inning.
At the time,the score was 4-0 and didn't seem to be a huge deal.
It would prove to be the difference in the game.

2) Garrett Jones is not a terrific outfielder defensively,but teams need to respect his arm.
Jones has proven more than capable of gunning runners down and that evens out some of his defensive deficiencies.

3) James McDonald threw his second good game in a row and other than the two run homer down the left field line that he allowed Jorge Cantu,McDonald seemed to be on his game.
And kudos to Clint Hurdle for allowing McDonald to finish the inning.
Too often young pitchers aren't allowed to develop confidence with dealing with middle/late inning adversity.
Being pulled at the first sign of trouble doesn't help that confidence grow.

4) Hurdle loses points though for not taking advantage of the Padre pitchers being unable to throw strikes.
Hurdle called a hit and run for cement footed Lyle Overbay on first and Chris Snyder,who might be the teams least likely batter to pull off a H and R.
Snyder missed and Overbay was thrown out.
Had Hurdle allowed things to take their course,the Pirates would have used the walks for an insurance run.

5) San Diego wore their camouflage jerseys to pay tribute to the Armed Forces for their role in the Osama Bin Laden death.
Those things are ugly,but the sentiment is applauded.

6) I'll be commenting more tomorrow on the Padres radio crew,but suffice it to say that I was not impressed.

Back either later or tomorrow with the Browns draft review-I haven't forgotten,it is just time permitting.

Photo Credit-AP Photo