Alex Presley led the Pirates to a 7-6 win over the Blue Jays in his 2011 major-league debut Wednesday. The Bucs jumped out to a 6-1 lead thanks to a two-run homer by Presley in the third (his first big-league homer), followed by a four-run rally in the fourth (to which Presley contributed an RBI single).
I was out in Pittsburgh watching the game at Belvedere's, and I saw the 6-1 score and tuned out for a while. I turned around what seemed to be a short time later, only to see Tony Watson throw a ball to Corey Patterson that sailed over the wall in right, and Watson immediately gave up another jack to Edwin Encarnacion. There was a two-run homer by Jose Bautista in the bottom of the fourth in there too, and then end result was that the game was closer than it probably should have been, with the Pirates winning 7-6.
There were six homers in the game, with a second homer by Encarnacion and a seventh-inning solo shot by Andrew McCutchen in addition to those mentioned above.
It's obviously far, far too early to crow about Presley, but it's nice to see him have success in his first game this year. Also, it's nice that when a team comes back like the Jays did tonight, the announcers simply need to say the name "Joel Hanrahan," and I feel like things are going to be fine.
The Pirates are now 40-38.