Going into the bottom of the 7th, the Pirates were down 5-3 and seemed to only be able to crack the Dodgers’ pitching staff. There were signs of life with Francisco Cervelli’s triple in the 2nd and Andrew McCutchen’s bomb to straightaway center in the 5th, but McCutchen’s force out with the bases loaded in the 6th inning seemed to take a lot of wind out of the Pirates’ proverbial sails.
Then came the 7th inning.
Jim Johnson entered the game to pitch the 7th for the Dodgers, and he struck out Aramis Ramirez looking to begin the bottom of the frame.