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Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Central

Vance, Pirates shut down Brewers

PITTSBURGH - Vance Worley is used to his body breaking down at this point in the season.An unexpected break allowed the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander to regroup. He responded with his sharpest outing in two months to push the fading Milwaukee Brewers closer to an extended vacation of their own.Bumped from the starting rotation in favor of a seemingly healed Charlie Morton last week, Worley returned with eight sparkling innings in Sunday's 1-0 win over the Brewers as the surging Pirates closed in on a second consecutive playoff berth.Pittsburgh is 2 games behind St. Louis after it lost ...

ANOTHER GEM

ATLANTA - The Pittsburgh Pirates have played three straight 1-0 games, but they're pitching so well that maybe it doesn't matter."We always talk about scoring one more run than the other team," manager Clint Hurdle said, "and the last three games we did it twice."Andrew McCutchen homered, Francisco Liriano won his fourth straight start and Pittsburgh moved closer to the postseason with a 1-0 victory Monday night over the Atlanta Braves.The Pirates, winners in 10 of their last 12, have a five-game lead over Milwaukee with six games remaining for both teams. Any combination of two ...

Pirates clinch playoff spot, beat Braves 3-2

ATLANTA - Gerrit Cole was so focused on recording 17 consecutive outs, he didn't glance at the out-of-town scoreboard.Cole insisted he didn't know his win over Atlanta had clinched a playoff spot for Pittsburgh until he walked into the clubhouse and saw the lockers covered in plastic.The surging Pirates earned their second straight trip to the postseason with a 3-2 victory over the free-falling Braves on Tuesday night.Cole gave up two runs in the first two innings and then didn't allow another baserunner.The Pirates' win combined with Milwaukee's loss to Cincinnati assured Pittsburgh of ...

Pirates stumble in NL Central race, Braves win 6-2

ATLANTA - Jeff Locke attempted to shrug off an ugly loss as "just another game that didn't go your way."With the Pirates in a tight division race, however, it was much more.Locke gave up six runs in only four innings and the Pirates missed a chance to move up in the NL Central race, falling to the Atlanta Braves 6-2 on Wednesday night.It marked the second time in five September starts Locke (7-6) failed to last longer than four innings. He allowed 13 baserunners - eight hits and five walks - in the short start.Locke said he struggled "pretty much the whole game, really."Manager Clint ...

Pirates rip Braves 10-1, cut Cards’ lead to 1 game

ATLANTA - Perhaps the only bad news for the Pirates is they can't send Edinson Volquez back to the mound with the division title on the line in their final regular-season series.Volquez threw seven scoreless innings, Travis Snider and Neil Walker hit homers and Pittsburgh moved within one game of the NL Central lead with a 10-1 win over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.Pittsburgh, only one game behind first-place St. Louis in the division, will close its regular season with a three-game series at Cincinnati. The Pirates clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday night."We want to keep doing ...

Bucs stay hot with late 3-1 victory over Reds

CINCINNATI (AP) - Travis Snider felt for Jay Bruce. He also was happy to see the ball go to the wall.Snider's scorching liner got past Bruce for a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-1 on Friday night to keep the pressure on NL Central-leading St. Louis."Every once in a while, you hit one on the screws, and it has that knuckleball effect," said Snider, who started in right for the Pirates. "It's a tough play for an outfielder. As an outfielder, you're going to see balls like that. I've hit a few."The Pirates have won five of six ...