Two National League teams entered play on Sunday riding win streaks to improve their playoff hopes in the tight playoff picture. Only one of those teams were able to extend that win streak, as the Pittsburgh Pirates won their ninth straight with a 9-2 rout of the Cincinnati Reds. Corey Dickerson homered for a fourth straight game, and for the fourth time in three days to lead the red-hot Pirates' offense.
Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte, and Sean Rodriguez all followed suit with the long ball, as the Pirates jumped ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Wild Card standings. Dickerson and Marte went back-to-back against Matt Harvey in the Pirates four-run second inning, which gave them an early 6-0 advantage. The Pirates ended up outscoring the Reds, 27-5, over the weekend to complete their first series sweep of their division rivals since September 27th-29th of 2013.
Dickerson was hot all weekend long, finishing 4-for-5 on Sunday, and totaling 21 bases in the three games combined. He helped the Reds get to Harvey, who dropped to 5-6 after allowing eight runs on eight hits in just 3.2 innings. Major league experts are expecting the former New York Mets' hurler to be dealt before the July 31st deadline. It could be to the Pirates, who are two games over .500 and 4.5 games out of the final playoff spot in the NL.
The other National League win streak came to an end, and that was the seven-game run of the Colorado Rockies. Zack Greinke struck out a season-high 13 batters as the Arizona Diamondbacks avoided the weekend series sweep with a 6-1 victory at Chase Field. He allowed just two hits over eight innings to earn his 11th win of the season.
In his longest outing of the season, the right-hander threw a season-high 111 pitches and improved to 5-0 with a 1.14 ERA in his past five starts. Ian Desmond's solo home run and Trevor Story's single were the only two blemishes on his outing.
The win for Arizona moves them past the Rockies in the NL West standings, a game and a half behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place. Nick Ahmed drove in three runs, including a key two-run triple, while Jeff Mathis drove in two and Steven Souza Jr. one.
Antonio Senzatela was activated off of the disabled list by the Rockies for this start, but allowed four runs on five hits over 5.1 innings in his third loss of the year. It was not the worst outing in what was just his third start of the season. Colorado leaves the series two games back in the West and behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card hunt.
Gregory Polanco, Starling Marte, and Sean Rodriguez all followed suit with the long ball, as the Pirates jumped ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the NL Wild Card standings. Dickerson and Marte went back-to-back against Matt Harvey in the Pirates four-run second inning, which gave them an early 6-0 advantage. The Pirates ended up outscoring the Reds, 27-5, over the weekend to complete their first series sweep of their division rivals since September 27th-29th of 2013.
Dickerson was hot all weekend long, finishing 4-for-5 on Sunday, and totaling 21 bases in the three games combined. He helped the Reds get to Harvey, who dropped to 5-6 after allowing eight runs on eight hits in just 3.2 innings. Major league experts are expecting the former New York Mets' hurler to be dealt before the July 31st deadline. It could be to the Pirates, who are two games over .500 and 4.5 games out of the final playoff spot in the NL.
The other National League win streak came to an end, and that was the seven-game run of the Colorado Rockies. Zack Greinke struck out a season-high 13 batters as the Arizona Diamondbacks avoided the weekend series sweep with a 6-1 victory at Chase Field. He allowed just two hits over eight innings to earn his 11th win of the season.
In his longest outing of the season, the right-hander threw a season-high 111 pitches and improved to 5-0 with a 1.14 ERA in his past five starts. Ian Desmond's solo home run and Trevor Story's single were the only two blemishes on his outing.
The win for Arizona moves them past the Rockies in the NL West standings, a game and a half behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place. Nick Ahmed drove in three runs, including a key two-run triple, while Jeff Mathis drove in two and Steven Souza Jr. one.
Antonio Senzatela was activated off of the disabled list by the Rockies for this start, but allowed four runs on five hits over 5.1 innings in his third loss of the year. It was not the worst outing in what was just his third start of the season. Colorado leaves the series two games back in the West and behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card hunt.
