The New York Mets defeat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2

The New York Mets defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates by the score of 3-2 on Tuesday night. The game took place at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. R.A. Dickey started for the Mets and pitched well. Frank Francisco pitched a clean inning to earn the save. James McDonald started for the Pirates and pitched well. Ronny Cedeno led the Mets offense and Harrison the Pirates offense. 
Dickey pitched seven innings giving up five hits and a run. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out 11. Dickey earned his sixth win of the season. Jon Rauch pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run, Tim Byrdak faced one batter and got him out on a strikeout and Francisco pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout to earn his 11^th save of the season. McDonald pitched seven innings giving up four hits and a run. He walked two and struck out eight. Juan Cruz pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs with one of them being earned. He walked one and struck out two and Chris Resop pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings. Cruz took the loss, his first of the season.

Mike Baxter had a hit, Kirk Nieuwenhuis had a hit and drew a walk and Lucas Duda had a hit and an RBI. Daniel Murphy drew a walk, Cedeno had two hits and drew a walk and Mike Nickeas had a hit and an RBI. Baxter had a double, the Mets were 2-6 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base.

Jose Tabata had a hit, Harrison had two hits and Andruw McCutchen had a hit and two RBI. Pedro Alvarez had a hit, Neil Walker had a hit and Rod Barajas had a hit. Harrison, Barajas and Tabata each had a double. Harrison had a triple and the team was 1-7 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. McCutchen had a stolen base. Alvarez committed an error and Tabata had an outfield assist.

In the second the Mets got on the board. Nickeas hit an RBI single to make it 1-0 Mets. In the sixth McCutchen hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one. Duda hit an RBI single and Murphy reached on an error to score another run and give the Mets a 3-1 lead. McCutchen hit an RBI single in the eighth to make it 3-2 but that was as close as it would get.

The two teams have split the first two games of their three game series. The rubber game will be played on Wednesday night. The Mets improved their record to 23-20 and the Pirates record dropped to 20-23.