Playing Long Ball can be fun

The PIrates won today by playing long ball. A rare sight. Karstens pitched okay, but not great. Albert got him once, and a RBI double in the 6th put Karstens out of the game. The game was tied at that point. 3-3. So 3 runs in 5.1 is not bad nor good. Less than what Karstens has been doing, but it kept us in the game. The Pirates saw Hanrahan give up a go-ahead run in the 9th on a sac fly. Weird. However the Pirates tied the game on a Neil Walker long ball. This was the first time the Pirates had scored since the Andrew McCutchen long ball. Resop pitched the 11th inning cleanly and saw G.I. Jones hit a walk off homer. Unbelievable. Jones crushed the ball that one-hopped into the river.

The Pirates have not won very many of these close games, and it is nice to get one. Walk off wins are always good. Tabata is back, and that is nice to see. The Pirates can right this ship and get back over .500 now. It is far too late to get back in the race, but we ought to be able to end the streak. The Brewers won again tonight, so no ground gained. If we could have just won once in Wisconsin, this upcoming four game set would have been much more interesting, but it is not the Pirates year.

The Pirates go for the sweep tomorrow night. We have not had too many of those this year either, so it is an important step in the development of this club to get a sweep or two before the year is over.