It’s not too often that you can says this, even if it is the end of April: The Pittsburgh Pirates are in first place.
It’s especially nice after they started the season 1-5.
The Bucs took two out of three games against the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend to pass them up in the NL Central standings.
The big surprise after the Pirates were hammered 9-1 in the first game of the series Friday has been the pitching.
A.J. Burnett has been brilliant.
Wandy Rodriguez has been wonderful.
And Starling Marte has been superb at the plate.
But the biggest reason the Pittsburgh Pirates are 11-9 has been the bullpen.
Specifically, Jason Grilli and Mark Melancon.
The big question surrounding Grilli entering the season was his ability to adept to being the team’s closer after Joel Hanrahan was traded to the Boston Red Sox.
Grilli, 36, has been nearly perfect. He’s tied for the major league lead in saves with eight, converting all eight opportunities.
Grilli and Melancon closed out a 2-0 win over the Phillies Tuesday.
It got interesting at the end, but the Pittsburgh Pirates prevailed 6-5 over the Cincinnati Reds Friday night.
After taking a 5-2 lead, the Pirates gave up a run to the Reds in the sixth inning and two in the seventh.
Andrew McCutchen responded with his second home run of the season.
Jason Grilli pitched the ninth, giving up a hit and a walk before striking out Brandon Phillips on a 3-2 pitch.
The Pirates improved to 4-6 while the Reds dropped to 5-5.
Tony Watson (1-0) picked up the win in relief of A.J. Burnett, who struck out eight in six innings. He was charged with three earned runs.
It’s a solid win for the Bucs after taking 2-of-3 from the Diamondbacks. The team easily could have folded after giving up the tying runs.
– Rick Green
Chris Young lost his cool.
The Arizona Diamondbacks' Chris Young, left, is restrained by manager Kirk Gibson as he argues with home plate umpire Larry Vanover Wednesday night. (Associated Press)
The Arizona Diamondbacks lost the game.
And thanks to the Milwaukee Brewers beating the Cincinnati Reds Wednesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates closed to within 2.5 games of the first-place Reds after holding on to beat the D’backs 7-6.
Young was ejected after being called out on strikes in the seventh inning.
It was the turning point of the game.
Young was batting with the bases loads and the D’backs trailing 7-5. A key hit, and the game likely unravels, much like Tuesday night. And it looked like it would, as the Pirates made three errors in that inning.
Instead, Young struck out and was ejected. Justin Upton was ejected as well.
Jason Grilli reportedly wasn’t available in the eighth because of back-to-back appearances, and that last appearance was one to forget.
In his place, newly acquired reliever Chad Qualls gave up a run in the eighth.
Manager Clint Hurdle probably didn’t have many other options other than Qualls, but I’d like to see someone else used as the setup guy. I’m not sure Qualls is ready for that spot.
In other Pirates news, Alex Presley was sent to Triple-A.
