RECAP - Pirates - 9 / Cardinals - 2

New to the Black n' Gold Blitz is going to be daily recaps of games.  Regardless of the sport or team, I will be giving a brief recap of every game.  Lets get this show on the road...

Pittsburgh Pirates - 9
St. Louis Cardinals - 2

WP - Liriano (11-4)
LP - Westbrook (7-5)

To sum this game up, all I have to do is diagram the Pirates 1st inning...both offensively and defensively.  "Franky" Liriano gets through the Pirates "First Inning Curse" without even a bat of an eye.  The Pirates come to bat and Westbrook walks Jose Tabata, hits Neil Walker by a pitch, and Andrew McCutchen singles to score Walker.  Just like that, 1-0 Pirates.  Next up, Pedro Alvarez deposits one of the biggest home runs of his career into the right field seats and within the first 4 Pirate batters, it was a 4-0 lead.  That's all that Liriano would need as he continued to dazzle with his off speed pitches and keeping hitters off balance.  After striking out 8, giving up 4 hits, and only allowing 1 run (earned run at that) Liriano exited the game to a thunderous applause from the PNC Park faithful.  Not to be outdone, the Pirates offense certainly rose to the occasion.  Timely hits from unexpected players like Clint Barmes, Alex Presley, and even a sacrifice fly by Gaby Sanchez.  That's right, the Pirates' first sac fly since the month of May...and its almost August.

As great as this outing was for the Pirates, there is still a lot of work to be done.  The Cardinals will bounce back, and its up to the Pirates to answer the bell.  Their upcoming schedule is as follows:

Pirates vs. Cardinals - 7/30 - 4:05 - AJ Burnett vs. Lynn (MLB Network)
                                  - 7/30 - 7:05 - Cumpton vs. Lyons
Pirates vs. Cardinals - 7/31 - 7:05 - Locke vs. Wainwright (ESPN)
Pirates vs. Cardinals - 8/1 - 7:05 - Morton vs. Kelly (MLB Network)