The Pirates rallied back after the Rockies took an early lead, but a messy outing by Mike Crotta gave the Rockies a 6-5 lead that they kept until the end.

Starter James McDonald allowed four runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Seth Smith and a three-run bomb by Jose Lopez, but the Pirates pulled even on a Ronny Cedeno sacrifice fly in the second, and an RBI single by Andrew McCutchen and two-run double by Lyle Overbay in the third. (The inning could have been a lot nicer were it not for Ryan Doumit's GIDP later in the inning.) The Bucs took the lead in the fourth when McDonald, who had singled earlier in the inning, came home on an RBI groundout by Neil Walker.

Things were quiet until the seventh. McDonald got the first two outs of the inning, but was replaced with Crotta when he allowed a single to Dexter Fowler. Crotta then walked Jonathan Herrera (who seems to do nothing but draw walks this year - he had three for the game and is not 5-for-11 with seven walks this season), allowed an RBI single by Jason Giambi, and walked Troy Tulowitzki and Seth Smith for good measure. The Smith walk came with the bases loaded and resulted in the go-ahead run crossing the plate. The Bucs then replaced Crotta with Daniel McCutchen, who got the final out of the inning, but it was too late.