The Fish and Pirates faced off once again Wednesday night for game three of their series at PNC Park. Josh Johnson made a strong start for the Marlins, and Ross Ohlendorf made a very similar one for Pittsburgh.
Both pitchers gave up leadoff home runs in the second inning. In the top of the frame, Dan Uggla went deep for his 28th long ball of the season, and Ryan Doumit hit his ninth off of JJ in the bottom of the inning to tie it up at one run apiece.
The Marlins were able to grab the lead in the fifth inning when Cody Ross doubled, and Chad Tracy hit an RBI single to make it 2-1, Fish.
In the eighth, Josh and Ross went all matchy again, and both gave up single runs. In the top of the inning, Ronnie Paulino doubled and moved to third on a sac bunt by JJ, then scored on Hanley's sac fly (Hanley, by the way, was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts on the night). The Pirates answered back in the bottom of the inning when Andrew McCutchen homered, and that was the end of the scoring in the game. The goods news is the Marlins were in the lead.
JJ stopped short of a complete game, going eight and allowing two runs on 7 hits and striking out six. Then Leo Nunez came in to close for the Fish. He walked the leadoff batter on four pitches, which didn't appear to be a good sign, but Leo followed the walk with two strikeouts and a groundout to end the game, and deliver JJ his first win since July 17th.
The Fish have at least split the series, and have a chance at the win tomorrow.