Vance Worley struck out seven batters in seven innings and the Pirates' bullpen added four more strikeouts as the Bucs held on to beat the Padres Friday, 2-1.
Worley gave up his only run in the first, when Everth Cabrera led off with a double, moved up on a sacrifice bunt, and came home on a sacrifice fly.
The Pirates struck back immediately. In the bottom of the inning, Josh Harrison (who went 3-for-3 with a walk in another big offensive game) led off with a triple, then came home when Gregory Polanco singled to right. Polanco stole second and moved up on a throwing error, then scored on Ike Davis' sacrifice fly.
That was all Worley would need. The Bucs wasted scoring chances in the later innings, most notably failing to score with the bases loaded and no outs in the third, as Davis struck out and Starling Marte lined into a double play. But that didn't matter. The Pirates got out of a jam of their own in the sixth, as the Padres loaded the bases with no outs, only to hit into a third-to-home-to-first double play. Worley struck out the side in the seventh, Tony Watson took the eighth and Mark Melancon struck out the side in the ninth as the Pirates completed their 2-1 victory.
With the win, the Pirates leapfrogged St. Louis and took hold of the top Wild Card spot. They're now 62-53 with 47 games to play.