For the second-straight game, the Pittsburgh Pirates found themselves in a 2-0 hole after the first inning. However, Gerrit Cole was on the mound for the Pirates and besides that first inning he did not let another run across for the San Francisco Giants, as they wound up winning the game 4-3.
The Pirates battled back and chipped away at the lead in the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Andrew McCutchen. Oh, and hats off to Angel Pagan for his phenomenal catch on that play. The score was 2-1 after McCutchen's sac fly.
Then, in fifth inning, McCutchen hit another sacrifice fly, this time scoring Gerrit Cole after a decent catch by Hunter Pence in right field. The game was tied and as they say in baseball, there were still "ducks on the pond" for the Pirates.
Neil Walker, who could be considered an unlikely hero due to some recent struggles at the plate, delivered in a big way for the Pirates. With two outs in the fifth inning, Walker split the left field gap with a two-run double giving the Pirates a 4-2 lead.
Gerrit Cole was the biggest story of the night as he keeps getting better and is showing that he is the Pirates ace. An example of his rise to greatness, Cole got behind 2-0 in the count to Brandon Belt with the bases loaded and no one out in the sixth inning. He battled back hard and struck out Belt. Cole would get the very next batter in Brandon Crawford to ground into a double play and end the unscathed.
Cole gave up just two unearned runs and lowered his ERA from 2.11 to just 1.90. Cole earned his eighth win of the season as well, and he is now tied for the Major League lead in wins with Bartolo Colon and "King" Felix Hernandez.
Cole probably had Pirates management smiling from cheek to cheek on Monday night. He has been everything the Pirates expected him to be and he seems to keep getting better. It would not come as a shock to see Cole with 20 wins this year. The Pirates have something special with Cole and he is having quite a 2015 season so far.