Pittsburgh 10, Atlanta 1
When: 7:10 PM ET, Thursday, September 25, 2014
Where: Turner Field, Atlanta, Georgia
Temperature:
71°
Umpires:
Home -
Jerry Layne, 1B -
Mike Estabrook, 2B -
Hunter Wendelstedt, 3B -
Manny Gonzalez
Attendance:
35140
By SportsDirect Inc.
Pirates 10, Braves 1: Josh Harrison took over the National League batting lead and Travis Snider homered among his three hits as visiting Pittsburgh pulled within one game of idle St. Louis in the NL Central.
Snider hit his 13th homer of the season in the first, Andrew McCutchen drove in three runs and Neil Walker added a two-run shot as Pittsburgh remained one game ahead of San Francisco in the race for the top NL wild-card spot. Harrison went 3-to-5 to extend his hitting streak to 13 games and raise his average to .319, moving into the NL batting lead as the Pirates head to Cincinnati for the final three games of the regular season.
Pittsburgh starter Edinson Volquez (13-7) struck out 10 in seven shutout innings, giving up four hits with one walk to win his fifth consecutive decision. Atlanta starter David Hale (4-5) surrendered two runs on five hits in 4 2/3 innings in his first start since June 28 as the Braves fell to 5-17 in September, avoiding their seventh shutout of the month on Ramiro Pena's sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Snider staked Pittsburgh to a 1-0 lead in the first, hitting Hale’s 1-2 pitch over the center-field fence. Harrison and Snider opened the third with back-to-back singles, and Harrison scored on McCutchen’s sacrifice fly to right.
Starling Marte singled leading off the sixth, stole second and scored on Gaby Sanchez’s single to right, and the Pirates blew it open with three in the seventh and four in the eighth – the last two on Walker’s 22nd homer. That was more than sufficient for Volquez, who struck out the side in the first and did not surrender a hit until Phil Gosselin’s infield single leading off the fourth.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Harrison holds a two-point lead over Colorado’s Justin Morneau in his attempt to become the first Pittsburgh player to win a batting title since Freddy Sanchez hit .344 in 2006. … The loss guarantees the Braves (77-82) their first sub-.500 season since 2008. … Volquez finished the season winning nine of his final 10 decisions and snapped a 0-for-45 streak at the plate with an eighth-inning single.
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| Pittsburgh
|
16 |
2 |
27 |
.400 |
20 |
6 |
9 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
| Atlanta
|
7 |
0 |
8 |
.219 |
19 |
12 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
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