Sports Network | September 12, 2010
Cincinnati, OH (Sports Network) - Andrew McCutchen doubled home three runs with two outs in the top of the ninth to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a stunning 3-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the finale of a three-game series at Great American Ball Park.
The Reds appeared set to sweep the set after winning the first two games in extra innings and held a 1-0 lead heading to the ninth on Sunday with Francisco Cordero trying to close it out.
Cordero (6-5) allowed the first two batters to reach and got Lastings Milledge to bunt into a force out before Garrett Jones lined a pinch-hit single to center to load the bases. Jose Tabata grounded into a force out at the plate, but McCutchen came through with a double into the left corner to clear the bases.
Joel Hanrahan came on for the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth and set down the first two batters he faced, but hit a batter, surrendered a single and walked another to load the bases. He then caught Chris Heisey looking at a third strike to end the game and record his fifth save.
The rally spoiled a brilliant outing by Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto, who surrendered just three singles in seven shutout innings. He walked two and struck out seven, lowering his earned run average to 1.09 in five starts against the Pirates this season.
Cincinnati now has a six-game lead over St. Louis for first place in the NL Central as the Cardinals downed theBraves on Sunday.
Brian Burres started for Pittsburgh and gave up just one run on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts in seven innings. Chan Ho Park (1-1) pitched a scoreless inning to notch the win.
Neal Walker singled for Pittsburgh to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest for a Pirates rookie since Rennie Stennett also hit in 18 straight in 1971.
The Reds jumped on top with a run in the fourth inning, as Orlando Cabrera doubled off the base of the left field wall and scored when Joey Votto doubled past a diving McCutchen in center field. McCutchen, though, threw out Votto trying to advance to third on a fly ball by Jonny Gomes.
Cueto limited Pittsburgh to just one hit through six innings, then gave up a leadoff single to Pedro Alvarez in the seventh. Milledge dropped a two-out single down the right field line to put runners on the corners before Ronny Cedeno went down swinging to end the threat.
Logan Ondrusek took over for Cueto in the eighth and yielded a two-out single to Alex Presley. Arthur Rhodes then issued a walk to Walker before retiring Alvarez on a grounder to third.
Ramon Hernandez had two hits for Cincinnati...The Reds had a six-game home winning streak stopped...Cueto is still 3-0 this season against Pittsburgh and 9-2 lifetime against the Pirates...The Reds won the season series, 10-6.