Brian Burres took the mound for the Pirates and did exactly what everyone expected him to; got crushed. He went 4 innings giving up 6 earned runs on 8 hits. Everything he was throwing up was getting pounded. This guy is not a major league pitcher. His fastball does not even reach 90 miles per hour, and he only has 2 other pitches, a changeup and a slider, neither of which are going to fool anybody. Fortunately, it was an emergency start and we won't have to see him often this year. He might have to make Ross Ohlendorf's next start if his back doesn't get better, so let's all be praying for a quick recovery from Ross.
Seeing a Pirate's pitcher get hit hard has been all too common this year. The Pirates have 4 losses in their first 7 games, and in those losses they have been outscored 43-12. That means they are giving up 10.75 runs per loss. Ugly. The Pirates team ERA so far this year is 7.82, you aren't going to win many games when your opponent scores over 7 runs a game.
There is a bright side here though. The four biggest contributors to the high team ERA have been Burres, Hayden Penn, Daniel McCutchen, and Charlie Morton. Currently, Penn and McCutchen are not on the 25-man roster. McCutchen will be back up when we need him to start again in close to 2 weeks, but we will not be seeing Penn again. That is good news. Burres is the same story, we probably will not see him pitch again, and if we do it will only be one more start. As for Morton, his stuff is way too good to kill the Pirates like he did in his first start. There is no doubt in my mind that Morton is going to bounce back and put together at least an average year for the bucs. The good news for the Pirates is that it's not their main starters and bullpen arms going out and getting rocked. For the most part, the guys that are going to be throwing most of the innings for the Pirates this year have done pretty well.
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