The Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox home and home series shifted to Chicago on Wednesday evening. The Pirates jumped all over Chicago starter John Danks in the first inning, putting up three runs.
Andrew McCutchen got the scoring started with an RBI base knock to drive in Josh Harrison. With McCutchen on first base, Jung Ho Kang homered to right field to make it 3-0 Pirates.
Pirates starter Jeff Locke pitched a shutout through five and two-thirds innings. The Pirates streak of consecutive scoreless innings ended at thirty three and two-thirds innings.
He surrendered a double to Melky Cabrera that scored Adam Eaton to make the game 3-1. Cabrera was then driven in two at-bats later by Avisail Garcia to cut the Pirates lead to just one run.
Locke went six innings, giving up two runs while striking out eight batters and walking two for the Pirates. John Danks settled down after a bad first inning. Danks went seven innings, giving up three runs on five hits.
The Pirates called upon Arquimedes Caminero in the seventh inning and he pitched a perfect inning. Tony Watson pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Pirates as well. Then in the ninth Mark Melancon nailed the door shut and the Pirates are now up 3-0 in this four game series. Melancon earned his 22nd save of the 2015 season.
The Pirates are the hottest team in the majors right now. The Pirates are 19-5 since May 22nd and are now eleven games over .500. Wednesday's win was also the Pirates seventh straight.
The final game of this home and home series features Pirates ace Gerrit Cole (10-2, 1.71 ERA) going up against Jeff Samardzija (4-4, 4.84 ERA).
