McDonald holds Houston hitless for 5 1-3 innings
Saturday, March 24, 2012
BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) -- James McDonald held Houston hitless into the sixth inning Saturday, but the Astros scored an unearned run in the 10th inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-4.
McDonald retired 16 of the first 17 batters he faced -- Juan Castro reached on an error in the third inning -- until Travis Buck sent a broken-bat single into shallow center field with one out in the fifth.
In his longest outing this spring, McDonald gave up a run on two hits and struck out three over seven innings.
Neil Walker lined a two-out, two-run single to right in the first.
Garrett Jones hit a two-run homer in the eighth to give the Pirates a 4-1 lead. In the top of the ninth, Scott Moore hit a three-run homer off Ryota Igarashi to tie it. A fielding error by shortstop Josh Rodriguez allowed Buck to score the winning run in the 10th.
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