The Cubs and Pirates got together Tuesday night at Elm Avenue Park in Bethlehem for a game with the Pirates. The Cubs grabbed a quick lead in the bottom of the first inning on a single by Bobby Lane, a wild pitch, and a 2-out RBI single by Alan Pennick. After two strike outs in the top of the second, the Pirates got a walk and consecutive singles by Ted Free, John Corrigan, and Paul Miles (the last two being RBI's). Cubs starter, Chris Dunn reactivated a hamstring injury getting the last out of the inning, and Phil Gadomski was pressed into emergency duty. Having pitched 6 innings just Sunday, Mash gave the Cubs two scoreless innings in the 3rd and 4th innings. The Cubs took advantage scoring 3 runs in the 3rd and 1 run in the 4th to grab a 5-2 lead. Jim McQuade had a double and single in the two rallies. Mike Girard added RBI singles in both innings. The Pirates again produced a 2-out, nobody on, 2-run rally in the 5th inning. The rally started with a Cubs error, and the Pirates took advantage of that extra out plating 2 runs on a booming ground rule double by Tom Rosario and a RBI single by Jim Quinn. Ron Massaroni came on for the top of the sixth for the Cubs and the Pirates played small ball to plate the tying run off the Cubs ace. Free led off with a single. John Corrigan followed with a perfect sacrafice bunt (on a pitch at eye level). Massaroni induced a harmless fly out to center, for the second out, but Tony Skrabalak followed with a clutch line drive single up the middle to tie the game at 5. With the daylight quickly running out, the umpires informed both teams that the bottom of the sixth would be the last inning. Shawn Maney promptly singled to start the rally. Bobby Lane doubled Maney to third. The Pirates decided to intentionally walk Mike Girard to load the bases, and face Alan Pennick. Alan came through with a walk-off RBI single (his third hit of the game), and the Cubs came away with a hard fought 6-5 victory. The win pushes the Cubs regular season record to 16-3. The Cubs face the Rays at Albany Central BR Wednesday night at 6:00 pm.
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Wednesday 7th of August 2013 07:54:40 AM
