Braves fall out of first after loss to Pirates
Atlanta drops to second place, a half-game behind Philadelphia
PITTSBURGH -- Right-hander James McDonald won a pitching duel with Braves ace Tim Hudson as the Pirates continued to play the spoiler role and downed the Braves, 5-0, at PNC Park on Tuesday night.
The loss was the third in a row for the Braves and their second consecutive loss to the lowly Pirates.
With Philadelphia's victory over Florida, Atlanta fell back into second place in the National League East, a half-game behind the Phillies.
The Pirates broke open a scoreless game in the bottom of the seventh inning. Garrett Jones smacked a one-out double and scored on an RBI double by Pedro Alvarez.
Ryan Doumit was walked intentionally, and Ronny Cedeno stroked a two-run triple, plating Alvarez and Doumit and chasing Hudson.
It was the first earned runs that the Bucs had scored against Hudson in his last 28 innings against them.
"I was excited a little bit, but I calmed down when I came to the plate," Cedeno explained. "I said, 'This is going to be mine.' I'm looking to bring him up a little bit. He missed his spot, and I drove the ball."
"Hudson didn't make many mistakes," Alvarez stated. "He pounded the zone. We were just fortunate enough to capitalize on a few -- I wouldn't call them mistakes -- just a few pitches that we were able to get enough wood on."
"Things were going pretty good, and you're out there in that seventh inning and a couple of pitches essentially cost us the game," Hudson said.
Hudson was disappointed that he let the game slip away in the seventh inning.
"It just stinks," Hudson lamented.
"I felt like we should have won the ballgame, but just two pitches cost us the game. We didn't play good enough to win and they did.
They played better than we did tonight. I feel like I should go out there, whether we're scoring runs or not, my job is to go out there and give up less than we get, and tonight, I just wasn't able to do that.
I wasn't able to put up zeros when we needed it. Obviously, it's a nothing-nothing game late, you start realizing that one or two runs could be the difference in the game, and they had the big hit right there in the seventh and that's what did it for us."
from Braves.com