Game 10 - Back In Black (5-5)

WIN 3-0

On a night when many more people cared what happened with the Penguins (understandably so), the Pirates got a rare win in a pitchers duel, thanks to timely hitting and pitching. Even though he didn't have his best stuff, Paul Maholm showed great poise in throwing seven shutout innings and got insurance runs from a Nate McLouth 2-run homer as the Pirates won 3-0 over Jair Jurrjens and the Braves. Maholm kept putting up zeros despite struggling with his command, giving up four hits, walking three, hitting two batters, and balking once. He improved to 2-0 and lowered his ERA to 0.87. McLouth and Freddy Sanchez had two hits each. The win was a big one for the Pirates, and especially Paul Maholm. Many times over the last few seasons, the Pirates have been on the losing end of pitchers duels (I'm reminded of Oliver Perez in '04 and Tom Gorzelanny in '07), so for Paul to have a night like this really establishes him as the ace and the stopper of this staff.

Game recap -

The Pirates unveiled their new black alternate jerseys tonight...not as bad as I thought they would be. The Braves best scoring chance came in the 2nd: Maholm hit Brian McCann then gave up singles to Jeff Francouer and Martin Prado to load the bases with no outs. But Casey Kotchman popped out and Jordan Schafer bounced into a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning with no damage. The next half inning, Brandon Moss tripled with one out for the Pirates and Andy LaRoche grounded out to drive him in. Maholm preserved that 1-0 lead threw the 7th, stifling potential Atlanta rallies in the 5th, 6th, and 7th. After Grabow got through the 8th, Sanchez singled off former Pirate Mike Gonzalez (here comes the boom) and McLouth followed with a homer to the Clemente seats in right, providing some much needed insurance runs. Matt Capps pitched a perfect 9th for his 3rd save of the season.

With the win the Pirates climb back up to .500 at 5-5. They are now 2-2 at home and 1-0 against the Braves. John and I are now 2-0 at Pirate games this year, and my Altoona Curve hat is also 2-0 (I'm wearing it to games until we lose).

Three Stars:

#1 Paul Maholm (3 in 3 starts...huge)

#2 Nate McLouth (2)

#3 Matt Capps (1)

Not so much:

#1 Nyjer Morgan (1)

#2 Ryan Doumit (3)

The Pirates and Braves (5-5) tee it up again tomorrow afternoon at 12:35, where Ian Snell will face Jo-Jo Reyes, who the Braves called up to make a spot start. Its Ryan Doumit bobblehead day.