This game was almost the same game as last night, when the Pirates beat the Phillies 3-2. The Pirates collected 5 hits and 2 walks in both games, but this time the pitching was even better.
Ross Ohlendorf pitched 7 scoreless innings, giving up 5 hits and walking 1 (intentionally), while striking out 8, a season high for any Pirates starter. The strikeouts were a really fun thing to see, and also a really rare thing to see from a Pirates starter. When your pitchers pitch to contact, you are going to give up some runs on balls that weren't squared up or hit on fairly good pitches, it doesn't seem too fair but that's how it is. When the pitcher can rack up a bunch of strikeouts, the chances of keeping the opposition off the scoreboard go up dramatically.
So that's the good news, the bad news is that the Pirates offense was really inexistent tonight. They were very lucky to get the 2 runs they got. They were both thanks to 2 infield singles and a throwing error on a tapper hit by Andy LaRoche that scored 2 after Jamie Moyer threw the ball into right field.
You can't put the blame on the Pirates batters, since Moyer was on the hill. He knows how to pitch, probably better than anybody in the game today, and that is extremely beneficial when facing a lineup as young as this Pirates lineup. Moyer has a huge advantage over guys like Jose Tabata and Pedro Alvarez before they even step into the box, just because of the extra 22 years of experience he has.
Hopefully the Pirates can keep this hot streak of pitching going, and maybe start up a hot streak of offense. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to start a spreadsheet tracking the starters performances starting this past week.
The Pirates will look for a series win tomorrow night when Paul Maholm faces Kyle Kendrick on a fireworks night at PNC Park.
