PITTSBURGH -- In the bottom of Friday's fourth inning, the Pirates did something they had not done since Monday's seventh inning: Score. The pressure on a pitcher immediately after his team scores is always pronounced, because few situations in baseball are as leveraged as the shutdown inning.
But the burden on Vance Worley after the Bucs had tied the Brewers at 1 in PNC Park was exponentially heavier due to the circumstances. How the right-hander responded to that challenge was the boldfaced part of the 6-3 victory.
The vise around Worley became even tighter when Jean Segura and Jonathan Lucroy delivered consecutive singles with one away.