Former Pirate Dana Eveland crushed his old team for eight innings, and the Pirates' bats came up short in a ninth-inning comeback attempt at the Los Angeles Dodgers won 6-4 at PNC Park.
Eveland pitched eight scoreless innings, striking out three, walking none, and allowing six hits. Brad Lincoln, meanwhile, got through six innings but allowed three runs in a shaky first inning. Jason Grilli allowed an unearned run in the seventh on a passed ball by Ryan Doumit, and Chris Resop allowed two runs in the eighth in yet another rocky outing.
That put the Pirates behind 6-1 heading into the ninth. Alex Presley hit a two-run homer and then two more runners reached base, but a sacrifice fly was all the Pirates could manage, and strikeouts by Josh Harrison and Brandon Wood ended the game with the Pirates still down by two.
Eveland briefly pitched for the Pirates last year, but only managed 9.2 awful innings.
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