News

McLeary, who was called up by the Pirates on Monday from the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians, worked out of a jam in the 10th inning to keep the score knotted at 7-7 as Chicago’s Aramis Ramirez lined into a double play to end the inning. Then, in the 11th inning, the Cubs strung together three straight singles and a sacrifice fly to plate two runs and take a 9-7 lead.

However, in the bottom of the 11th inning, Jose Castillo pulled the Pirates within 9-8 with a one-out RBI-single. Pinch hitter Humberto Cota reached on an infield single batting for McLeary, and one out later Jose Bautista drew a walk to load the bases with two outs.

That brought up Freddy Sanchez, a former teammate of McLeary’s in the Boston Red Sox minor league system and a fellow NAIA college baseball alum from Oklahoma City University. After fouling off the first two pitches and then taking a ball, Sanchez, the National League’s leading hitter with a .347 batting average, lined a two-run single to right to give Pittsburgh a 10-9 walk-off win - the Pirates’ second straight 11th-inning victory in less than 24 hours.

"It feels good," McLeary said of his first big-league win.  "I wish I would have done it a little more cleanly, but Freddy came up big for us.  As a pitcher you know you don't have to be perfect because those guys are going to come through."

On Tuesday, McLeary made his first major league appearance since the 2004 season. He worked a perfect sixth inning and then allowed one hit, one walk, and one run in the seventh inning while striking out two batters as the Pirates defeated the Cubs 7-6 in 11 innings. In two appearances, he has now allowed six hits, two walks, and three runs over four innings with four strikeouts.

After an off-day on Thursday, Pittsburgh heads to St. Louis for a three-game weekend series with the Cardinals before playing four games in Chicago. On September 8-10, the Pirates will play a three-game series in Cincinnati before returning home for a six-game homestand from September 11-17.