Game 118: Pirates 7 Mets 5

I guess every so often even the Pirates get to stumble in to a win. After more ugly defense (Andy LaRoche made an error in the first that resulted in David Wright's homer being a three-run job instead of two, then Ryan Doumit dropped a perfect throw to the plate that let a fourth run score in the third), the Pirates battled back to score three runs in both the seventh and ninth innings against the shaky Mets bullpen this afternoon to turn what looked like it was going to be a listless loss into a pretty exciting 7-5 win. It was nice to see the key hit in the ninth inning rally come from Steve Pearce and not because I've been sticking up for him all year, but because he's been struggling since his call-up and there's never anything that feels better for a struggling hitter than a game-winning hit. Pearce and Doug Mientkiewicz were the only Pirates to have more than one hit and those two joined Ryan Doumit to all knock in two runs apiece and account for most of the Pirates offense this afternoon. The bullpen held things down nicely after a decent start (the errors resulted in two unearned runs) from Zach Duke, including three strikeouts in an inning from Denny Bautista.

I think that a lot of people misunderstand it when I say that I like the trades we made. As much as I do and as much as I think the trades are going to make the Pirates better, seeing them founder in the wake of the trades still sucks to watch. It's good to see the team get a tough win like they did today, just to know that they can still do it.