After what looked to be a game that was in the bag for Wandy Rodriguez, the Pirates once again showed why they just can’t keep up with certain teams in the league, mainly all of them of late, as the team lost 4-3 in 14 innings to the Reds last night.

Wandy went 6 2/3 strong innings before being pulled by manager Clint Hurdle, giving up only one run and throwing 89 pitches.  At this point in the year and Rodriguez’s career, 89 pitches really isn’t all that many and many questioned Hurdle’s decision to yank his veteran starter.  Immediately after he was removed from the game the Red’s tied the game at 3 and it remained that way until the bottom of the 14^th inning as the Reds scored the winning run off of newly recalled pitcher Rick VandenHurk.

The bullpen was outstanding last night. Major shout outs to Jared Hughes, Tony Watson, Chris Resop, Joel Hanrahan, and Chris Leroux who combined for a total 6 1/3 shutout innings out of the pen.

The bats were dead silent last night, except for a select few.  Andrew McCutchen collected his 25^th homer of the season in the 4^th inning along with two walks on the night, and surprisingly, outfielder had a 2-hit game while scoring a run as well.  The biggest disaster last night at the dish was hand down Pedro Alvarez, as he went 0-6 with a whopping four strikeouts, one of them coming in extra innings with the bases loaded and two outs.  This is the second time in two games Pedro has been up with the bases loaded and two away, and wasn’t able to come through in the clutch.

Again, the phrase “must win game” is in full effect tonight as Kevin Correia looks to get his 11^th win of the season and right the ship for the Bucs as they continue their free-fall from the playoff conversation.  First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. and hopefully the goats from last night come up big for Pittsburgh tonight.