Houston Astros at Pittsburgh Pirates 7/17/2010 Game 20
What a better way to celebrate my 20th game than a bachelor party trip to Pittsburgh to enjoy my final weekend as a single man. It was also my first trip to the spectacular PNC Park.
Gathered was a rag tag bunch from Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. We were treated to a less than stellar pitching performance, but plenty of runs to be had all around.
For the Pirates, Ross Ohlendorf, would take the mound, and also be the answer for many Pirates when asked any question on the Jumbotron. His counterpart was future Cardinals closer Bud Norris, who was leading a soon to be down and out Houston Astros team that would trade some key pieces and begin the long journey to rebuilding and their eventual World Series.
On this night though, the Astros were favored over a Buccos team that had lost seven straight. Pittsburgh got on the board quickly with an RBI double by Garrett Jones and then a two-run single from Lastings Milledge made 3-0 in the first.
Houston quickly responded when human action figure, Hunter Pence, homered to lead off the second. Angel Sanchez hit an RBI double and Michael Bourn doubled in a pair and the Astros were back on top and Ohlendorf got the quick hook after just 1.2 innings. Jose Tabata doubled home a pair of runs for the Pirates in the bottom of the second to put Pittsburgh back on top 5-4.
D.J. Carrasco got the Pirates into some hot water in the fifth inning and gave way to sidearm lefty Javier Lopez. Lopez responded by surrendering a two-run double to Chris Johnson and the Astros were back on top 6-5.
With Norris still in the game for Houston in the fifth, the Pirates started a two-out rally with a Milledge single and the first career hit by Eric Kratz in his MLB debut. Ronny Cedeno singled and tied the game at six.
Right around this time a bunch of high school/early college aged girls were conversing with a group of college to late 20′s aged girls. Somehow the older group agreed to buy the younger girls alcohol. This proved to be a mistake as everyone in the aisle was escorted away by security.
What they missed was Ryan Church getting a pinch-hit single off new pitcher Chris Sampson to give the Pirates a lead. Gustavo Chacin took over in the sixth for Houston and gave up two more runs to extend the lead to 9-6. Pittsburgh got another three off Casey Daigle in the eighth to finish the game with a 12-6 victory.
The losing streak was over, but the Pirates had now won back-to-back games that I attended. Our goal was to have a fun night of drinking and tom foolery, but it turns out that on Saturday night, it is nearly impossible to purchase any alcohol.
Instead we settled for a bad Sci-Fi movie about spiders and called it a night. I would persuade about half the guys to stick around one more day to enjoy some Sunday afternoon baseball.
