Pirates vs. Dodgers, Game 23

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Pittsburgh Pirates (10-12)
vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (8-14)

10:10 PM, Dodgers Stadium

Charlie Morton (0-4, 16.20) vs. Chad Billingsley (1-1, 5.40)


Burres, Pirates Shut Out Dodgers

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The Pirates extended their winning streak to 3 tonight after shutting out the struggling Dodgers. A surprisingly solid outing from Brian Burres followed by 3.2 innings perfect innings from Jack Taschner and Evan Meek led the Pirates to a 2-0 victory. The record now stands at 10-12 and things are looking up. I don't know what happened, but this club looks completely opposite from how they looked last week.

The Pirates offense wasn't anything to write about tonight, scoring only 2 runs on 5 hits. The only offense came in the first inning when Lastings Milledge, who walked, and Andy LaRoche scored on a Ryan Doumit single which was misplayed by Matt Kemp (the scorekeeper gave Doumit a triple). After that, Clayton Kershaw was very good and the Dodgers pen allowed only 2 hits. All of that didn't matter with how the Pirates pitched tonight however, it sure feels good to win these close games.

Things to note:
  • Ryan Doumit extended his hitting streak to 9, and Andy LaRoche's short streak came to end, not that he didn't hit the ball well, he hit a ball that would have been a home run in almost any other circumstances, but the deep fence and the high winds kept it in.
  • Ronny Cedeno's struggles continue with another 0-4 performance. His season average now stands at .211.
  • Evan Meek got the save opportunity tonight, probably nothing of note, but interesting nonetheless, especially since he set the Dodgers down 1-2-3 with ease in his inning of work.
  • The Pirates move into sole possession of 3rd place after their win and a Brewers loss. The Brew Crew got pounded by San Diego, 9-0. We trail the red hot Cardinals by 5 games and the streaking Reds by 1 game.
  • The Pirates have serious momentum heading into Charlie Morton's start tomorrow. Seeing guys like Jeff Karstens and Brian Burres going out and shutting down offenses has to be motivated him and giving him some confidence, let's hope he can emulate their successes tomorrow.
First pitch tomorrow is at 10:10 again and it's Charlie Morton against Chad Billingsley. Let's go Bucs!
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Pittsburgh Pirates (9-12)
vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (8-13)

10:10 PM, Dodgers Stadium

Brian Burres (0-1, 9.31) vs. Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 3.13)


Pirates vs. Dodgers, Series Preview

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The Pirates bounced back from an ugly 7 game losing streak to win their last 2 games, now they head to the west coast to take on the Dodgers in a 4-game series. Let's take a look at the 2010 Dodgers:

Games: 21
Record: 8-13
Runs Scores: 111
Runs Allowed: 125
Home Runs Hit: 21
Home Runs Allowed: 21

Top Offensive Performers:
Matt Kemp: 20 R, 5 2B, 7 HR, 20 RBI, 3 SB, .292 AVG, .350 OBP
Manny Ramirez: 7 R, 4 2B, 2 HR, 12 RBI, .415 AVG, .500 OBP
Andre Ethier: 10 R, 2 2B, 5 HR, 17 RBI, .333 AVG, .410 OBP

Bottom Offensive Performers:
Blake DeWitt: 5 R, 1 2B, 5 RBI, 11 BB, .240 AVG, .377 OBP
Russell Martin: 11 R, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .302 AVG, .408 OBP
Garret Anderson: 2 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, .135 AVG, .175 OBP

Pitcher's This Series:
Clayton Kershaw: 4 GS, 23.0 IP, 1-0, 3.13 ERA, 7.0 BB/9, 10.2 K/9
Chad Billingsley: 4 GS, 20.0 IP, 1-1, 5.40 ERA, 4.1 BB/9, 8.6 K/9
Charlie Haeger: 4 GS, 19.1 IP, 0-3, 7.45 ERA, 7.4 BB/9, 9.3 K/9
Hiroki Kuroda: 4 GS, 26.2 IP, 2-1, 2.36 ERA, 2.0 BB/9, 7.4 K/9

How they got here:
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Pirates on the road
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Marlins on the road
  • Won 2 of 3 over the Diamondbacks at home
  • Won 2 of 3 over the Giants at home
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Reds on the road
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Nationals on the road
  • Lost 3 of 3 to the Mets on the road

The Dodgers are a well put together baseball team, but they are not playing very well right now. Their offense has been pretty good, but their pitching has been inconsistent. They are scoring 5.3 runs per game while giving up 6. Despite their struggles on the road, they have played very good at home and have a record of 4-2 there. I'm sure they still have a bad taste in their mouth after getting swept by the Mets and they are probably looking to avenge their series loss in Pittsburgh to begin the year, so this is going to be a tough one for the Bucs. We don't exactly have the best rotation of pitchers going out to pitch this series, so we are going to have to bring the lumber. I would very happy if we come out of Los Angeles with a series split.

Pirates Win In 14

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The Pirates took down the Brewers 6-5 in 14 innings this afternoon and improved their record to 9-12 on the season. It looked like it was going to be an easy win after the Pirates hammered the ball in the first and put 3 runs on the board on 2 home runs from Andy LaRoche and Andrew McCutchen, but Paul Maholm gave the lead up in bottom of the first and the offense shut down for awhile after that.

It was a pretty boring game after the first the whole way until the 9th inning when Ryan Doumit blasted his 3rd home run of the year off of Trevor Hoffman, his 2nd in as many nights. The Pirates got another solo shot from McCutchen in the 10th but gave up that lead and then wasted a golden opportunity in the 12th when Lastings Milledge popped up a bunt that lead to a double play. Fortunately, DJ Carrasco was excellent and pitched 3 scoreless innings, which was just enough to allow Garrett Jones' 14th inning RBI double to be the game winning hit.

The main thing I have to say about this game was how crucial Carrasco's performance was. Not only did he win the game for the Pirates, he saved the arms of Jack Taschner, Javier Lopez, and Brian Bass as the Pirates make a trip out to Los Angeles for a 4-game set. It would have been real rough not having any fresh arms going into a 4 game set against a high powered offense like the Dodgers. Luckily, Carrasco was excellent and gave the Pirates exactly what they needed and helped them win the series and set them up for another solid performance in their next one.

The Pirates also showed a little bit of intensity tonight, when Ryan Church and Andy LaRoche both got thrown out of the game for arguing bad strike calls. While any batter is going to be mad when they are called out on strikes when they feel that they shouldn't have been, it was kind of nice to see some anger out of the Pirates team. During the long losing streak there were a couple times I really wished John Russell would have come out and flipped out on an ump and got tossed or one of the players would show some anger and take it out on a gatorade cooler or something. They just seemed so lifeless and I think showing some frustration could have really fired some people up. While the ejections tonight really aren't anything to be discussed, it was just nice to see something different for once.

The Pirates have played two solid baseball games in a row now and hope to continue their success against the Dodgers. The pitching probables are as follows:

Thursday: Brian Burres vs. Clayton Kershaw
Friday: Charlie Morton vs. Chad Billingsley
Saturday: Jeff Karstens vs. TBA
Sunday:
Zach Duke vs. Hiroki Kuroda

First pitch tomorrow is 10:10 eastern, Let's Go Bucs!

Pirates vs. Brewers, Game 21

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Pittsburgh Pirates (8-12)
vs. Milwaukee Brewers (9-11)

1:10 PM, Miller Park

Paul Maholm (1-2, 4.74) vs. Chris Narveson (1-, 7.20)


Pirates Batters vs. Chris Narveson
Ryan Doumit: 0/1
Akinori Iwamura: 0/1
Garrett Jones: 0/1
Andrew McCutchen: 1/1, 1 2B
Lastings Milledge: 1/1, 1 2B, 1 RBI


Brewers Batters vs. Paul Maholm
Corey Hart: 11/34, 4 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 7 K
Prince Fielder: 3/33, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 10 K
Rickie Weeks: 7/30, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 6 K
Ryan Braun: 8/21, 2 2B, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K
Casey McGehee: 2/8, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB


Streak Stoppers

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If you would have told me that Jeff Karstens would be the one to stop the Pirates first significant losing streak of 2010, I would not have believed it for a second. However, that's exactly what happened tonight. The Pirates were short on starting pitching arms so they made the call to bring up Karstens for the start tonight, hoping just to eat some innings.

No one was expecting Karstens to go 6.2 innings giving up only 2 earned runs on 6 hits. It was a very gutsy performance for Karstens, who had no clue he would be starting for the Pirates a few days ago. After his exit in the 7th inning, Joel Hanrahan came on to retire Ryan Braun and end a Brewers threat. Javier Lopez, Brendan Donnelly, and DJ Carrasco teamed up to pitch the final 2 innings of the game. They gave up 1 run, which was tagged on to Lopez (who gave up a Prince Fielder solo jack). Luckily for Lopez, the offense picked it up in the 9th and saved him from getting the loss.

The bullpen has been awful in this streak, but it really hasn't worried me. The main reason for that is because the Pirates really have not been in the ball games that they have been bad in. When your team is down 5 or more runs in the 6th or 7th inning, the intensity and urgency to get outs really is not there. While there is no excuse for performing beneath your ability just because the game is out of hand, I do believe that the performances would have been better if the games were closer. We will see how the bullpen responds now that the streak has ended.

The offense has shown signs of life the last couple games, and that continued tonight. Andy LaRoche had another 4 hit game, his season average now sits at a gorgeous even .400. Jeff Clement added 3 hits of his own, he has been swinging the bat well and has raised his average 62 points over the last 5 games. The biggest story of tonight's game was Ryan Doumit, whose 9th inning grand slam put the Pirates on top for good and lifted a huge weight off the team's shoulders. That was not all he did though, he also added a double and a single to notch his first 3 game hit of the year. It sure is good to see him hitting the ball.

I am very excited after tonight's victory. The team hit well and pitched well, and that is something we have not seen them do either of in over a week. The buccos got the weight of that losing streak off their back in a big way, and can now move forward and focus on winning without the burden of an elongated losing streak nagging them. Hopefully this will get the team some momentum and they can start playing better baseball. I am not predicting that the Pirates are going to go on a long winning streak or anything like that, but I would be surprised to see them get blown out much over the next couple weeks. I think they will be competitive and look like a lot better ball club now that this awful streak is over. Like I said, I'm not saying they are going to look like a really good team, but they will certainly be better than they hav been.

That prediction will be made a reality if Doumit and Clement keep their bats hot. There is a lot of power in those 2 guys, and they can definitely produce some important runs for the Bucs if they are going good. With Andy hitting the way he has been hitting and Garrett Jones continuing to draw walks and get on in front of them, they are going to have some runners on base to do some damage with. It should be very interesting watching tomorrow's game and then the 4-game set against the Dodgers.

I'm not entirely sure what the club is going to do with Karstens now that they do not need a starter for a little while, but I wouldn't be surprised if they kept him with the club. They DFA'd John Raynor yesterday, so there is a void on the bench which I expect to be filled with either Steve Pearce or Neil Walker, both of whom have been crushing the ball in AAA.

Keep a look out for those moves tomorrow and tune in to the game if you can. The pitching matchup is Paul Maholm vs. Chris Narveson, which looks favorable for us. First pitch at 1:05. Let's Go Bucs!

Pirates vs. Brewers, Game 20

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Is there really anything left to say? Until the Pirates win a game I don't think any analysis needs to be made. Game 20... here we go again...


Pittsburgh Pirates (7-12)
vs. Milwaukee Brewers (9-10)

8:10 PM, Miller Park

Jeff Karstens (0-0, 0.00) vs. Randy Wolf (2-1, 3.70)


Pirates Batters vs. Randy Wolf
Lastings Milledge: 2/15, 2 BB, 0 K
Ryan Doumit: 3/14, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K
Andy LaRoche: 2/13, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K
Ronny Cedeno: 5/8, 2 2B, 1 BB
Garrett Jones: 2/7, 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 K
Andrew McCutchen: 2/9
Delwyn Young: 2/8, 2 2B, 1 K
Akinori Iwamura: 2/7, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 K


Brewers Batters vs. Zach Duke
Corey Hart: 2/10, 1 2B, 1 BB
Ryan Braun: 3/8, 1 3B, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP
Prince Fielder: 1/9, 1 3B, 1 BB, 3 K
Craig Counsell: 1/6, 1 2B, 1 BB
Rickie Weeks: 2/7, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 1 K
Gregg Zaun: 2/6, 1 RBI
Jim Edmonds: 2/3, 1 2B, 1 3B, 2 BB



Pirates vs. Brewers, Game 19

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The Pirates losing streak is at 6 after another loss to the Astros yesterday. Despite putting only 3 runs on the board, the Pirates hit the ball well yesterday. Andy LaRoche went 4-4, Andrew McCutchen collected 3 hits, and both Ryan Doumit and Jeff Clement had 2 hits. The Pirates totaled 14 hits but could not string enough of them together to put a big enough number on the board to beat the Astros. It would have been tough regardless since the pitching staff got hit hard yet again and allowed 10 runs. Charlie Morton had another ugly start and got knocked out of the game after only 3 innings of work. He gave up 5 earned runs and still lowered his ERA from 16.55 to 16.20. Ugly stuff. I don't know how long the Pirates are going to put up with starts like that from Morton, but they have to take some sort of action soon. Tonight the Pirates try to end their losing streak against the team that started it, the Milwaukee Brewers.


Pittsburgh Pirates (7-11)
vs. Milwaukee Brewers (8-10)

8:10 PM, Miller Park

Zach Duke (2-1, 4.13) vs. Yovani Gallardo (1-2, 4.30)


Pirates Batters vs. Yovani Gallardo
Andy LaRoche: 3/13, 1 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Ryan Church: 2/6, 1 RBI, 3 BB, 1 K
Andrew McCutchen: 2/8, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 K
Garrett Jones: 2/4, 4 BB, 0 K
Delwyn Young: 3/8, 3 2B, 2 RBI, 3 K
Ryan Doumit: 0/3, 2 BB, 1 K


Brewers Batters vs. Zach Duke
Prince Fielder: 9/29, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 3 BB, 7 K
Rickie Weeks: 7/29, 3 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K
Corey Hart: 5/18, 4 2B, 4 RBI, 4 BB, 0 K
Ryan Braun: 5/12, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K
Jim Edmonds: 0/8, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 3 K
Carlos Gomez: 1/5, 1 2B, 1 BB, 0 K
Alcides Escobar: 4/5, 2 3B, 2 RBI, 0 K
Casey McGehee: 1/5, 1 RBI, 0 K



Sinking Ship

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The Pirates are struggling right now. They have not played very good baseball all year long, but it has been especially bad the last 5 games. They have lost 5 in a row and have been outscored by a ridiculous count of 45-6 in those games. They have been shut out 3 times this year and haven't scored more than 5 runs in a game since April 14th. The Pirates are dead last in the National League in batting average, and 2nd to last league-wide, ahead of just the Cleveland Indians. There are only 2 teams that have scored fewer runs than the Pirates, and there are no teams that have given up more runs. The Pirates are also last in the league in ERA (6.99). It has not been an encouraging start to the season, although somehow the Pirates find themselves at 7-10. However, if the Pirates don't start playing better baseball they are going to find themselves a lot worse off than that with 3 games coming up against the Brewers and 4 against the Dodgers before returning home to face the Cubs.

The Pirates have not had a solid start from a pitcher in this 5 game losing streak, and that is unlikely to change today with Charlie Morton taking the hill. Morton has probably been the worst performing Pirate this season, which is really saying something. He has 16.55 ERA after 3 starts and has compiled only 10.1 innings in those 3 starts. That is not what you want from a starter. He will try to get it together today against the Astros, who have been hot lately, winning 7 of their last 9 games. Here's the details and liveblog:


Pittsburgh Pirates (7-10)
vs. Houston Astros (7-10)

2:05 PM, Minute Maid Park

Charlie Morton (0-3, 16.55) vs. Brett Myers (0-1, 4.05)


Pirates Lineup
1. Akinori Iwamura, 2B
2. Andrew McCutchen, CF
3. Lastings Milledge, LF
4. Garrett Jones, RF
5. Ryan Doumit, C
6. Jeff Clement, 1B
7. Andy LaRoche, 3B
8. Charlie Morton, SP
9. Ronny Cedeno, SS


Astros Lineup
1. Michael Bourn, CF
2. Jeff Keppinger, 2B
3. Carlos Lee, LF
4. Lance Berkman, 1B
5. Hunter Pence, RF
6. Pedro Feliz, 3B
7. J.R. Towles, C
8. Tommy Manzella, SS
9. Brett Myers, SP


Pirates Batters vs. Brett Myers
Ryan Church: 3/18, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 10 K
Lastings Milledge: 5/14, 3 2B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Ronny Cedeno: 0/7, 1 BB, 5 K
Ryan Doumit: 1/7, 1 K

Astros Batters vs. Charlie Morton
Michael Bourn: 3/9, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 2 K
Carlos Lee: 3/9, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 0 K
Hunter Pence: 1/6, 1 BB, 0 K
Kazuo Matsui: 3/5, 1 RBI, 1 K
Pedro Feliz: 0/4, 2 K
Geoff Blum: 1/2, 0 K






Pirates vs. Astros, Game 17

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Pittsburgh Pirates (7-9)
vs. Houston Astros (6-10)

7:05 PM, Minute Maid Park

Chris Jakubauskas (0-0, 0.00) vs. Wandy Rodriguez (0-2, 4.67)


Pirates Lineup
1. Akinori Iwamura, 2B
2. Bobby Crosby, 1B
3. Andrew McCutchen, CF
4. Garrett Jones, RF
5. Lastings Milledge, LF
6. Andy LaRoche, 3B
7. Jason Jaramillo, C
8. Chris Jakubauskas, SP
9. Ronny Cedeno, SS


Interesting lineup tonight, Andrew McCutchen moves back to the 3 hole, and yet the pitcher still remains in the 8 spot. Also, Andy LaRoche makes his return tonight and Jeff Clement gets another night off as Bobby Crosby makes the start at first.

Pirates Batters vs. Wandy Rodriguez
Ronny Cedeno: 1/10, 2 K
Delwyn Young: 2/9, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K
Ryan Doumit: 2/9, 3 K
Garrett Jones: 1/4, 1 K
Andrew McCutchen: 0/4, 2 K
Akinori Iwamura: 0/3, 1 K


No Astros batters have ever faced Chris Jakubauskas




Pirates vs. Astros, Game 16

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Pittsburgh Pirates (7-8)
vs. Houston Astros (5-10)

8:05 PM, Minute Maid Park

Paul Maholm (1-1, 4.58) vs. Roy Oswalt (1-2, 2.37)


Pirates Batters vs. Roy Oswalt
Ryan Doumit: 3/14, 1 RBI, 3 K
Ronny Cedeno: 3/8, 1 3B, 1 K
Ryan Church: 2/8, 1 K
Andy LaRoche: 3/5, 1 K
Akinori Iwamura: 1/4, 1 K
Andrew McCutchen: 1/4, 2 RBI, 1 K
Lastings Milledge: 0/2, 1 K
Bobby Crosby: 1/3, 1 K
Delwyn Young: 0/3, 2 K


Astros Batters vs. Paul Maholm
Carlos Lee: 7/35, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K
Hunter Pence: 8/25, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Jeff Keppinger: 6/22, 1 2B, 0 K
Kazuo Matsui: 2/17, 1 BB, 2 K
Michael Bourn: 3/13, 1 2B, 2 BB, 6 K
Pedro Feliz: 3/11, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K
Humberto Quintero: 4/11, 1 RBI, 1 K
Jason Michaels: 1/7, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 K



Minor League Update

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The Pirates are down 10-0. They have been outscored 26-1 this series, and this game isn't even over yet. I have never seen a team play worse baseball than they have been playing this series. After this one we go on the road for 3 in Houston, 3 in Milwaukee, and 4 in Los Angeles. Yikes.

I really don't have anything else to say. I'm hitting the road to head up to Erie for a tennis tournament the next 3 days, so I might not be posting very much or at all until Sunday. A couple of days away from watching this team play might do me some good actually.

That's all I have to say. I hope you got the joke in the title. Let's go Bucs?

Brewers vs. Pirates, Game 15

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The Pirates bats have been dead the last 2 nights, collecting 10 hits and scoring only 1 run. We've had our chances with runners in scoring position, but no one has been able to come through with a hit. Let's hope they can get things turned around against Randy Wolf and stay above .500 for at least one more day.

Milwaukee Brewers (7-7)
vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (7-7)

12:35 PM, PNC Park

Randy Wolf (1-1, 4.91) vs. Daniel McCutchen (0-1, 14.73)



Charlie Bit Me

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Apparently my pre-game post never posted yesterday, sorry about that. Turned out there wasn't much of a game last night anyway, as the Pirates got blown out 8-1. Charlie Morton looked absolutely terrible, as he has all year long.

No one can put a definite finger on why Morton has been so bad in his first three starts, but it appears to me more mental than physical. So far in 2010 Morton has pitched 10.1 innings and gave up 19 earned runs. That goes along with 23 hits and 4 walks. He has thrown 225 pitches and only 132 of them have been strikes. He has gotten 18 ground balls, 26 fly balls, and 14 line drives. He has thrown his fastball 56% of the time, his slider 16% of the time, his curveball 17% of the time, and his changeup 10% of the time. His fastball velocity has been good, at an average of 93.4 mph, which is 2 miles per hour faster than last year. His pitches have been good at times, and he has made multiple batters look foolish at the plate. However, that turns right around when he doesn't throw his pitch, and he gets hammered.

I think Morton's terrible start has just been a result of low confidence and pitch selection. After you get roughed up in your first outing it's hard to bounce back, especially for a young, unexperienced guy like Morton. Every time after that that you don't pitch well just makes it worse. His confidence has to be near an all-time-low right now, and until he starts having some success it isn't going to come back up. The thing that he can control is his pitch selection. He needs to put in some serious work with Joe Kerrigan to figure out what pitches he should be throwing in what situations. Yesterday, when facing Dave Bush (who was trying to bunt a runner to third), he throw a 2-1 curveball that bounced 2 feet in front of the plate. Doumit couldn't handle it and the runner got to third without the Pirates getting an out. Morton went on to throw ball 4 and give the Brewers another free base runner. There is no reason to be throwing that kind of pitch in that situation. I can understand if he wants to throw a breaking ball to the pitcher to lessen the chances of getting a good bunt down, especially when down 3 or 4 runs like they were yesterday, but there is no excuse for trying to throw a strikeout curveball in a situation where the batter is trying to give himself up.

While I am not putting any of the blame on Ryan Doumit, I have never thought that he was the best catcher at calling the game. He isn't the kind of guy you want behind the plate when you have a young pitcher on the hill who is trying to figure himself out. While the Pirates do not have much of a choice, and the real effect a catcher can have is not that big, I think it might be worth a shot to give Jason Jaramillo the start next time Morton takes the hill. If it does nothing else, it will at least be a change. When nothing is going right, there is little risk in making changes. Morton's next start will come against the Houston Astros, who have been terrible offensively, so that could be a good chance to bounce back. And by the way, there is no reason to even consider sending Morton to AAA yet, it has only been 3 starts and he has shown that he has even better stuff than years past, he has little to gain in the minors and there is a good chance that Morton could turn the ship around in just a few starts and become dominant again.

The good news from last night is that Andrew McCutchen crushed the ball. He had 3 hits, 2 of which were doubles. Cutch has been getting good wood on the ball almost every time he comes to the plate, don't be surprised if he goes on an absolute tear over the next few weeks.

The Pirates are back in action tonight, and the score starts at 0-0 again. We'll be trying to keep our winning record afloat against Yovani Gallardo, who is one heck of a pitcher but hasn't been in pristine shape yet this season. Zach Duke takes the hill for the Pirates, which is exactly who we would want against an ace like Gallardo. Duke has already taken down Dan Haren, so it should be fun to watch him do battle tonight. Let's go Bucs.

Brewers vs. Pirates, Series Preview

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The Pirates are winners of 3 straight and are sporting a solid 5-1 record at PNC Park so far. That bodes well for them as the Milwaukee Brewers come to town for a 3-game set. Let's take a look at what the Brewers have done so far:

Games: 12
Record: 5-7
Runs Scores: 61
Runs Allowed: 75
Home Runs Hit: 12
Home Runs Allowed: 17

Top Offensive Performers:
Rickie Weeks: 10 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB, 9 BB, 11 K, .311 AVG, 466 OBP
Casey McGehee: 9 R, 4 HR, 10 RBI, 0 SB, 6 BB, 5 K, .400 AVG, .462 OBP
Ryan Braun: 8 R, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB, 4 BB, 10 K, .367 AVG, .407 OBP

Bottom Offensive Performers:
Prince Fielder: 6 R, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB, 4 BB, 15 K, .244 AVG, .370 OBP
Carlos Gomez: 5 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 SB, 0 BB, 6 K, .242 AVG, .242 OBP
Gregg Zaun: 2 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 0 SB, 2 BB, 2 K, .143 AVG, .184 OBP

Pitcher's This Series:
Dave Bush: 2 GS, 11.2 IP, 0-0, 3.86 ERA, 1.5 BB/9, 6.2 K/9
Yovani Gallardo: 3 GS, 18.0 IP, 0-2, 5.50 ERA, 4.0 BB/9, 7.5 K/9
Randy Wolf: 3 GS, 18.1 IP, 1-1, 4.91 ERA, 2.9 BB/9, 7.4 K/9

How they got here:
  • Took 2 of 3 from the Rockies at home.
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Cardinals at home
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Cubs on the road
  • Lost 2 of 3 to the Nationals on the road
All-in-all I see no reason why the Pirates can't win this series. They have been playing decent baseball at home so far this season and there is still a lot of room for improvement. It would be really nice to see Jones and Doumit to hit the ball a little better this series, that is going to be a key to how we perform this year and it would be nice to see them bust out of their slumps quicker rather than slower. First game is tomorrow at 7:05, I'm heading down to the game but check back here for the liveblog! Let's Go Bucs!

Sweep.

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The Pirates beat the Reds for the 3rd straight day, this time by the tune of a 5-3 victory.

Paul Maholm pitched a great game today, going 6.2 innings and giving up only 2 earned runs on 4 hits; he also struck out 5. At the beginning of the game he was only half of the great pitching story, as Bronson Arroyo put up three 1-2-3 innings to start the game. However, in the 4th inning the Pirates got to him and put a 5-spot on the board thanks to an RBI single from Ryan Church and a 3 RBI double from Jason Jaramillo. It's great to see those guys that are normally on the bench contributing when they get their chance. Joel Hanrahan and Brendan Donnelly teamed up to pitch a scoreless 8th and then Octavio Dotel closed it out and got his 3rd save of the season, despite serving up Jay Bruce's 2nd solo home run of the night.

The Pirates weren't amazingly impressive in this series, but they did well enough to take advantage of some sloppy play by the slumping Reds and win all 3 ballgames. The offense did not perform as well as we would have liked, but that will happen when you are getting next to nothing from your 4 and 5 hitters. Garrett Jones went 1 for 12 this series, although he did drive in 2 runs, while Ryan Doumit had only 1 hit in his 8 at bats. Jones is hitting .209 this year, Doumit is at .216, and they have only 1 extra base hit between them since the first series against the Dodgers. While there's no way to be sure they are going to bounce back and have above-average power numbers this year, they are surely not going to be this dismal for very long. That is good news. Usually when a team's top 2 power hitters go on power outages team struggle mightily, but the Pirates have been doing just fine with their record of 7-5, and they are 5-4 in this long power drought from Jones and Doumit.

A lot of the same is true for the pitching, while it has been good enough to win us 7 ballgames, by no means has it been as good as it can be. Zach Duke has been very solid so far, but everyone else has struggled (with the exception of Maholm today). We don't know what we're going to get out of Daniel McCutchen or whoever else makes starts in the 5 spot, but the other 4 guys in the rotation are certain to be better than they have been together so far.

Things are looking up for the Pirates right now. They haven't played their best baseball, but they are still looking at a nice 7-5 record right now.

The Buccos are off tomorrow, but then start a 3-game set with the hated Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Tuesday night. Probables are as follows:

Tuesday: Dave Bush (0-0, 3.86) vs. Charlie Morton (0-2, 13.50)
Wednesday: Yovani Gallardo (0-2, 5.50) vs. Zach Duke (2-0, 2.37)
Thursday: Randy Wolf (1-1, 4.91) vs. Daniel McCutchen (0-1, 14.73)

I'll be back with more on this series tomorrow. Let's Go Bucs.

Reds vs. Pirates, Game 12

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After back-to-back walk off wins, the Pirates go for the sweep this afternoon over the Cincinnati Reds. Last night's game was a lot like Friday night's game, the Pirates scored early, and then completely shut down offensively until the 9th inning, where they have managed to do enough to win both games. The pitching has been very solid for the Bucs, and it's looking like a good chance that that will continue as Paul Maholm toes PNC Park rubber for the 2nd time this year. His opponent is Bronson Arroyo, who has gone 14 innings giving up 6 earned runs on 10 hits with 9 strikeouts so far in 2010. It's shaping up to be a pitcher's duel with more cold weather in Pittsburgh, but usually when I say that it turns into an offensive explosion.

Cincinnati Reds (5-7)
vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (6-5)

1:35 PM, PNC Park

Bronson Arroyo (0-0, 3.86) vs. Paul Maholm (0-1, 5.73)


Reds Batters vs. Paul Maholm
Brandon Phillips: 14/34, 2 2B, 4 HR, 9 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K
Scott Rolen: 4/12, 1 2B, 3 BB, 1 K
Joey Votto: 1/10, 2 BB, 1 K
Jay Bruce: 1/9, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Jonny Gomes: 1/2 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Ryan Hanigan: 0/3, 2 K


Pirates Batters vs. Bronson Arroyo
Ronny Cedeno: 3/15, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 6 K
Ryan Church: 4/10, 2 2B, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Andy LaRoche: 1/7, 1 2B, 2 BB, 1 K
Ryan Doumit: 1/4, 1 BB, 0 K
Jason Jaramillo: 1/6, 1 K
Lastings Milledge: 2/6, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K
Bobby Crosby: 3/5, 3 2B, 1 K
Delwyn Young: 1/5, 0 K
Garrett Jones: 1/3, 2 K
Andrew McCutchen: 0/2, 1 BB, 0 K




Reds vs. Pirates, Game 11

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Johnny Cueto (0-0, 4.91) vs. Daniel McCutchen (0-1, 24.30)




Cutch and Clutch

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The Pirates won a thriller tonight in walk-off fashion over the Reds. The first 7 innings were dominated by the Pirates, as Zach Duke threw up 7 0's to start the game. The Pirates put two on the board in the first thanks to a pair of singles from Akinori Iwamura and Andrew McCutchen, a throwing error on a Lastings Milledge bunt, and a Garrett Jones sacrifice fly. The Pirates scratched their third run across the very next inning when Iwamura singled in Bobby Crosby. After that it was cruise control for Duke until the 8th when he walked the first batter he faced. That caused JR to give him the hook and bring in Joel Hanrahan, who walked one and got one out before exiting. The combination of Javier Lopez and Brendan Donnelly would walk 3 more but get out of the inning holding on to a 1-run lead. Octavio Dotel blew the save when Chris Dickerson tripled and scored on a sac fly in the 9th. He pitched well to limit the damage and keep the game tied, and the Pirates headed to the bottom of the 9th with a chance to walk off.

The inning didn't start well, as Cedeno and Iwamura both went down on strikes with ugly looking swings. However, Andrew McCutchen put together a great at bat and reached first on a ground single through the left side. Cutch then swiped second without a throw and scored on a clutch 3-2 single from Milledge up the middle.



It was a pretty good win for the Pirates, even though their bullpen looked terrible and the offense pretty much shut down after the 2nd inning. They did what they needed to do to win, and that is all that really counts in the end. However, if they keep putting together inconsistent games like this, they won't come out on the winning side very often.

The Pirates host the Reds again tomorrow night at 7:05, check back here for a preview and a liveblog.

Reds vs. Pirates, Game 10

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The Pirates open their 2010 NL Central schedule with a series against the Reds that starts tonight at 7:05 in PNC Park. The Reds are a young, up and coming team who have potential to compete in the division. With bats like Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Brandon Phillips, they can put some runs on the board in a hurry. Their pitching staff also has some extreme upside with a lot of young talent. The Pirates are going to see some of that young talent tonight in Mike Leake, who looked excellent in his major league debut last week. An interesting tidbit is that Mike Leake has never started a game in the minor leagues. He was drafted last summer in the first round and didn't make any starts in the organization until this year, when he started the year on the major league 25-man roster. It should be a lot of fun to watch him pitch.

Looks like there's a good chance that tonight's game will be delayed and/or postponed. I will be heading down to the game tonight, so I'm hoping for good weather.

Cincinnati Reds (5-5)
vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (4-5)

7:05 PM, PNC Park

Mike Leake (0-0, 1.35) vs. Zach Duke (2-0, 3.00)

Lineups:
  1. Aki Iwamura. 2B
  2. Andrew McCutchen, CF
  3. Lastings Milledge, LF
  4. Garrett Jones, RF
  5. Ryan Doumit, C
  6. Jeff Clement, 1B
  7. Andy LaRoche, 3B
  8. Zach Duke, P
  9. Ronny Cedeno, SS
Reds Batters vs. Zach Duke
Brandon Phillips: 5/26, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 K
Scott Rolen: 7/16, 2 2B, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Joey Votto: 10/16, 5 2B, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 0 K
Drew Stubbs: 4/12, 1 2B, 3 HR, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 0 K
Jonny Gomes: 4/12, 2 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K
Paul Janish: 0/11, 1 BB, 0 K
Ramon Hernandez: 4/7, 1 BB, 0 K
Ryan Hanigan: 2/5, 1 BB
Jay Bruce: 1/5, 0 K
Orlando Cabrera: 1/3, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K


No Pirate's batters have ever faced Mike Leake.

Pirates vs. Giants, Game 9

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Pittsburgh Pirates (4-4)
vs. San Francisco Giants (6-2)

3:45 PM, AT&T Park

Charlie Morton (0-1, 21.60) vs. Jonathan Sanchez (0-0, 6.23)


Pirates Batters vs. Jonathan Sanchez
Bobby Crosby: 1/10, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Ryan Church: 1/6, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K
Andy LaRoche: 0/3, 1 BB, 1 K
Ryan Doumit: 1/3, 1 RBI, 1 K
Lastings Milledge: 1/3, 0 K


Giants Batters vs. Charlie Morton
Travis Ishikawa: 2/6, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 K
Fred Lewis: 2/5, 1 BB, 2 K
Bengie Molina: 1/6, 2 K
Pablo Sandoval: 1/6, 2 K
Juan Uribe: 1/5, 1 BB, 1 K
Mark DeRosa: 1/2, 2 BB
John Bowker: 0/3, 1 K
Edgar Renteria: 2/3, 1 K
Ryan Rohlinger: 0/3, 1 K
Aaron Rowand: 1/3, 1 K
Nate Schierholtz: 1/3, 1 K
Andres Torres: 0/3, 1 K
Eugenio Velez: 1/2, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K



Win By Insurance

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I don't have much time right now, but I realized there won't be much time to reflect on tonight's game tomorrow since it's an early start, so I just wanted to say a few things quickly.

Tonight was a great win for the Pirates. We got a solid outing from Paul Maholm, some good early hitting from Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, and Akinori Iwamura, some great bullpen work from Evan Meek and Brendan Donnelly, some fantastic late hitting to add the 2 insurance runs that proved to win us the game by Andy LaRoche and Ryan Church, and then just enough from Octavio Dotel to get out of there with a victory.

I can't stress enough the importance of LaRoche's 9th inning blast. Andy has been terrible thus far, and it was extremely good to see him hit a ball hard, and he hit that one extra hard. Seeing Andy crush a ball gave Ryan Church all the more confidence to go up there swinging, and he drove one to right center and wound up with a triple, then eventually scored the game-winning run. While you can't say that those 2 runs were the difference between a win and a loss, because Dotel might have pitched differently if they were only up by 1, it sure was huge tonight.

The Pirates hit the ball early, got some runs on the board, and then completely shut down through the middle part of the game, but were able to bounce back and score again late, which we haven't seen a lot of this year. The Pirates have been a very streaky and inconsistent offensive team so far, and tonight was a very positive outing for the team.

Tomorrow the Pirates take on the Giants in the rubber match of the series at 3:30, the matchup is Charlie Morton vs. Jonathan Sanchez.

Pirates vs. Giants, Game 8

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Pittsburgh Pirates (3-4)
vs. San Francisco Giants (6-1)

10:15 PM, AT&T Park

Paul Maholm (0-1, 6.00) vs. Matt Cain (0-0, 4.05)


Pirates Batters vs. Matt Cain
Bobby Crosby: 1/15, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K
Andy LaRoche: 3/13, 0 K
Ronny Cedeno: 2/11, 1 RBI, 4 K
Ryan Doumit: 2/11, 2 RBI, 1 K
Ryan Church: 1/8, 0 K
Garrett Jones: 1/7, 1 BB, 2 K
Paul Maholm: 1/6, 1 2B, 1 BB, 3 K
Andrew McCutchen: 0/5, 2 BB, 2 K
Lastings Milledge: 1/4, 1 BB, 1 K


Giants Batters vs. Paul Maholm
Aaron Rowand: 2/14, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 2 K
Mark DeRosa: 5/16, 1 2B, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 5 K
Bengie Molina: 3/12, 2 2B, 1 RBI, 3 K
Edgar Renteria: 4/12, 1 RBI, 1 K
Juan Uribe: 2/11, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Matt Cain: 1/6, 1 RBI, 1 K
Pablo Sandoval: 3/6, 1 2B, 0 K
Andres Torres: 1/6, 1 3B, 2 RBI, 1 K
Eugenio Velez: 1/6, 1 K
Aubrey Huff: 1/2, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB


Pitching Woes Continue

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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.

Pirates vs. Giants, Game 7

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Ross Ohlendorf has been scratched from his scheduled start tonight because of back spasms, so the Pirates have called up Brian Burres to make the spot start. Burres looked absolutely terrible in spring training, but he was one of our only options with the short notice. Don't expect much tonight, Burres is by no means a big league pitcher. In 2008, Burres made 22 starts for the Orioles and had an ERA of 6.04 with 3.5 BB/9 and only 4.4 K/9. Barry Zito looked masterful in his first start this year, pitching 6 shutout innings while only surrendering 3 hits. It could be a long night...



Pittsburgh Pirates (3-3)
vs. San Francisco Giants (5-1)

10:15 PM, AT&T Park

Ross Ohlendorf Brian Burres (0-0, 0.00) vs. Barry Zito (1-0, 0.00)


Pirates Batters vs. Barry Zito
Andy LaRoche: 1/9, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Ryan Church: 0/8, 1 RBI, 2 K
Ryan Doumit: 3/8, 1 RBI, 2 K
Delwyn Young: 4/9, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K
Bobby Crosby: 2/7, 1 HR, 1 K
Garrett Jones: 2/6, 0 K
Andrew McCutchen: 3/6, 0 K
Ronny Cedeno: 2/3, 2 RBI


Giants Batters vs. Brian Burres
Juan Uribe: 0/3, 1 BB, 0 K
Mark DeRosa: 0/1, 0 K


A Week In Review

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After a very ugly loss today in a game that featured Daniel McCutchen, Hayden Penn, and Jack Taschner giving up 13 runs in one inning, the Pirates stand at 3-3 after their first week of play. Here's the week summed up:

Team Totals:

Runs For: 29
Runs Against: 45

Home Runs For: 8
Home Runs Against: 8

Strikeouts (offense): 40
Strikeouts (pitching): 32

Walks (offense): 23
Walks (pitching): 25

Batting Average: .267
On Base Percentage: .380
Stolen Bases: 7 (0 runners caught stealing)

Errors Committed: 8 (at least one in every game since the opener)


Individual Totals

Batting:(OBP/SLG/AVG):

Andrew McCutchen: .286/.407/.259
Garrett Jones: .321/.583/.208
Lastings Milledge: .320/.375/.292
Akinori Iwamura: .370/.409/.227
Ryan Doumit: .318/.476/.286
Ronny Cedeno: .400/.450/.400
Andy LaRoche: .333/.176/.176
Jeff Clement: .294/.429/.214

Pitching (IP, ERA, H, BB, K):
Zach Duke: 12.0, 3.00, 11, 3, 3
Paul Maholm: 6.0, 6.00, 6, 2, 3
Ross Ohlendorf: 5.0, 3.60, 4, 3, 1
Charlie Morton: 3.1, 12.60, 9, 1, 6
Daniel McCutchen: 3.1, 24.30, 6, 3, 2
DJ Carrasco: 4.1, 6.23, 3, 1, 2
Evan Meek: 4.0, 2.25, 5, 3, 1
Jack Taschner: 4.0, 6.75, 5, 1, 6
Octavio Dotel: 3.0, 0.00, 1, 1, 3
Javier Lopez: 3.0, 6.00, 4, 1, 2
Brendan Donnelly: 2.2, 0.00, 2, 3, 3
Hayden Penn: 2.1, 30.86, 8, 3, 0


Notes:
  • Ronny Cedeno has been the biggest positive surprise. He is 8/20 at the plate with 3 RBI, however he is leading the team in strikeouts with 7.
  • Akinori Iwamura has done a fantastic job getting on base. His OBP is .370, while his average is only .227, that's a ridiculous difference. He has hits 5 hits this season, 4 of which came in the last 3 games, so the average is on the rise.
  • The pitching has been better than the numbers show. There has been 4 individual performances that have done serious damage to the Pirates team ERA, two of which came from Hayden Penn, one from Charlie Morton, and one from Daniel McCutchen today. The team ERA right now is 7.47, but if you take those 3 guys out, the team ERA is 3.88.
  • The Pirates have sat Jeff Clement 2 different times to get Delwyn Young in the game. I'm not sure if that is going to be a common thing this year, but I didn't really expect it. I was expecting Clement to be an everyday player, but it seems that Russell is concerned about getting his bench guys as much playing time as he can. I'm not saying that is bad thing, especially with the way Delwyn's been hitting, but I was looking forward to seeing Clement in the lineup everyday. Overall he hasn't done a terrible job in his first week as a Pirate, with 3 RBI and a home run to boot. The .214 average isn't what you like to see, but it's not fair to judge him by that with only 16 plate appearances so far.
  • We have also been very successful stealing bases, with a perfect 7-for-7 mark. McCutchen and Cedeno lead the team with 2 each, and Garrett Jones, Lastings Milledge, and Akinori Iwamura have each added one of their own. I would definitely like to see the Pirates run more this year, and so far they have shown no reason why they shouldn't.
  • The bench done a great job. The combination of Delwyn Young, Ryan Church, and Bobby Crosby have 11 hits in 26 at bats with 8 RBI and 4 walks drawn.

We have seen a lot of different looks from the Pirates so far, they have looked like a completely different team almost every time they go out there. They have shown the ability to put a lot of runs on the board in a hurry, and also the ability to do absolutely nothing at the plate. They have shown the ability to shut lineups down, and also the ability to get absolutely hammered. They have played great defense one day and terrible defense the next. It's a very inconsistent team, which is what you would expect from a bunch of young guys. It's gonna be a rollercoaster year, but it should be fun to watch it play out.

LET'S GO BUCS!

Pirates vs. Diamondbacks, Game 6

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The Pirates played some terrible baseball Thursday and Friday, but bounced back nicely Saturday. John Russell made the call to move Daniel McCutchen's season debut back a day to get Zach Duke in the game to match up against Diamondback's ace Dan Haren. Duke's outing was not terribly impressive when you look further than the box score, but he did a good enough job and got lucky enough to get his 2nd straight win. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 earned runs on 4 hits. It was sure nice to get those 7 innings, giving the bullpen a little break after they have been seeing a lot of action in this first week. Jack Taschner, Brendan Donnelly, Javier Lopez, and Octavio Dotel combined to pitch the last 2 innings, giving up one run (which was charged to Taschner, who faced only 2 batters). Dotel pitched a perfect 9th and got his first save as a Pirate.

The offense came largely off of 2 home runs by Jeff Clement and Akinori Iwamura. Clement's home run was good to see, especially coming off of Dan Haren. Let's hope his power can continue to develop and he can do some damage for the Bucs this year.

It was an all-around well played game for the Pirates, hopefully it got some of their confidence back they had after starting 2-0. Today the Pirates play the rubber match with the Diamondbacks, trying to win their 2nd straight series to open 2010. Here's the deets:


Pittsburgh Pirates (3-2)
vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (3-2)

8:10 PM, Chase Field

Daniel McCutchen vs. Edwin Jackson


Pirates Batters vs. Edwin Jackson
Ryan Doumit: 0/4, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 0 K
Bobby Crosby: 0/3, 1 BB
Jeff Clement: 0/3, 0 K
Akinori Iwamura: 1/3, 0 K


No Diamondbacks batters have ever faced Daniel McCutchen.



LET'S GO BUCS!

Pirates vs. Diamondbacks, Game 5

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Pittsburgh Pirates (2-2)
vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (3-1)

8:10 PM, Chase Field

Zach Duke vs. Dan Haren


Pirates Batters vs. Rodrigo Lopez
Ryan Doumit: 2/9, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 2 K
Delwyn Young: 1/7, 4 K
Andy LaRoche: 0/5, 1 K
Ryan Church: 0/3, 0 K
Bobby Crosby: 0/3, 0 K
Garrett Jones: 3/3, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 0 K
Andrew McCutchen: 1/2, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 K
Lastings Milledge: 1/3, 0 K


No Diamondbacks batters have ever faced Daniel McCutchen.

It's going to be tough game for the Pirates to win. They are on a 2-game losing streak and nobody is really expecting them to break that tonight. However, the Pirates did surprisingly well against elite pitchers like Haren last year, so I'm not counting us out completely yet. Anyways, here's the liveblog:




LET'S GO BUCS!

Pirates vs. Diamondbacks, Game 4

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Pittsburgh Pirates (2-1)
vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (2-1)

9:40 PM, Chase Field

Charlie Morton vs. Rodrigo Lopez


Pirates Batters vs. Rodrigo Lopez
Bobby Crosby: 3/12, 1 2B, 1 HR, 5 K
Ryan Church: 3/6, 2 2B, 0 K
Akinori Iwamura: 2/3, 0 K


Diamondbacks Batters vs. Charlie Morton
Stephen Drew: 2/6, 3 3B, 1 RBI, 0 K
Mark Reynolds: 2/6, 1 BB, 3 K
Miguel Montero: 1/5, 4 K
Chris Young: 0/5, 0 K
Conor Jackson: 2/3, 0 K
Gerardo Parra: 1/3, 1 HR, 0 K
Justin Upton: 1/3, 1 BB, 0 K
Augie Ojeda: 1/2, 1 BB, 0 K

There's Our Buccos

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The Dodgers defeated the Pirates 10-2 today, and boy was it ugly. Neither team played particularly well, it was just a matter of who played worse. The Dodgers did well at the plate, capitalizing on almost every Pirate pitching mistake. They collected 16 hits, 6 of which came in one inning off of Pirates pitcher Hayden Penn. Penn looked straight awful, serving up meat ball after meat ball and getting absolutely hammered over and over again. He had the same 6 H, 4 ER line as Paul Maholm did, only in 5 less innings.

Maholm did not pitch all that terribly, he gave up one run in the first, another in the third, and then 2 in the 5th. The two early runs were both the result of some great Dodger hitting. Ronnie Belliard had a huge day at the plate, with the highlight being his 2-run homer in the fifth on a ball that nobody would ever expect him to hit out of the ballpark. He also added 2 more hits in other parts of the game and came up a single short of the cycle. Maholm did make some really good pitches today and I look at it as a positive start.

There wasn't much going on with the offense. Chad Billingsley was on his game for Los Angeles, going 5.1 innings and giving up 1 earned run on 5 hits. He also struck out 7. The Pirates did have their share of chances during the game, but couldn't capitalize. The biggest chance they had was when the bases were loaded for Andy LaRoche with only 1 out. LaRoche got into a deep count, and then struck out looking. With the pitcher up behind you and only one out, I don't see any excuse for not swinging the bat on a borderline pitch with 2 strikes on you. That was a huge mistake and cost the Pirates a lot of potential momentum at that point in the ballgame. After his strike out, Paul Maholm also was caught looking and the threat ended. Andy did get hit first hit of the year later in the game, on a hard hit line drive into left field. Iwamura also notched his first hit of the year, and now every Pirates regular has at least one hit.

It was just a really ugly ball game altogether. The Pirates recorded 3 fielding errors, 2 of which were attributed to Bobby Crosby. Also, Garrett Jones made one of the ugliest errors you will ever see a big league player make, having an easy ground ball pop right out of his glove.

On a positive note, Jeff Clement got his first Pirate RBI in the 6th when he hit a sacrifice fly to score Delwyn Young, who had a nice day at the plate with 2 doubles and 2 walks drawn. Delwyn has been smoking the ball all year and it is too bad we have no where for him to play.

The Bucs hit the road for the first time in 2010 as they head to Arizona for a 3 game set with the Diamondbacks, starting tomorrow at 9:30. The matchup is Charlie Morton against Rodrigo Lopez, it'll be very interesting to see how Morton performs in his first start of 2010. Until then...

Let's Go Bucs!

Game 3, Dodgers vs. Pirates : LiveBlog

1 comments

Chad Billingsley vs. Paul Maholm



Pirates Lineup:
1. Akinori Iwamura, 2B
2. Andrew McCutchen, CF
3. Garrett Jones, 1B
4. Ryan Doumit, C
5. Ryan Church, LF
6. Delwyn Young, RF
7. Andy LaRoche, 3B
8. Paul Maholm, SP
9. Bobby Crosby, SS


Dodgers Lineup:
1. Rafael Furcal, SS
2. Reed Johnson, LF
3. Matt Kemp, CF
4. James Loney, 1B
5. Ronnie Belliard, 3B
6. Garret Anderson, RF
7. Jamey Carroll, 2B
8. Brad Ausmus, C
9. Chad Billingsley, SP





Different Means, Same Results

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The Pirates have successfully outscored the Dodgers each of the last two games, however, the ways in which they did so were very different.

Monday, the Pirates were mashing the ball. They hit 3 home runs and had a 3-run double, which helped them put up 11 runs, which would have been good enough to beat almost anyone in the league. Tonight they only put up 4, and they still found a way to win the game. I'm not sure which win I savor more, but it just might be tonight's.

The offense started in the first inning again tonight, as Garrett Jones hit his 3rd home run in 2 games and drove in Akinori Iwamura, who walked, and Andrew McCutchen, who singled. The Pirates were then silent the whole way until the tenth inning, when Ronny Cedeno drove in Lastings Milledge to seal the win.

Tonight was a different night at the ballpark for me. Monday my entire focus was on the game. I had a scorecard in hand and was only 1 section away from the field. Tonight I was with a larger group of friends and was way up in the 300's, so it made it harder to really focus on what was going on, but here's what I noticed:
  • The bullpen was outstanding. This was obviously the story of the game. Pirates starter Ross Ohlendorf had a decent start, only giving up 3 runs (2 earned) in 5 innings of work, but he threw a lot of balls and only struck out one batter. He also walked 3 batters, he just didn't look like himself out there. Luck was on his side and he got out of the game with the score tied 3-3. That's what the bullpen took over. The combination of Evan Meek, Javier Lopez, DJ Carrasco, Octavio Dotel, and Brendan Donnelly put together 5 scoreless innings. They surrendered only 1 hit in those innings, although they did walk 6. DJ Carrasco probably had the best outing, throwing 11 of his 15 pitches for strikes and setting down the Dodgers 1-2-3 in the 8th. Octavio Dotel had a tough beginning to his inning, as a misplayed single turned into a double, which was followed by a wild pitch, leading to a runner on 3rd with nobody out scenario. This had a lot of Pirate fans uneasy. I heard a lot of negative comments about how the bullpen was going to blow it and the Pirates were going to be the Pirates and lose like normal. However, Dotel worked his way out of the jam and put up a 0. When he broke Manny's bat and got him to ground out to end the threat, the crowd had a big sigh of relief and seemed to realize that maybe this team isn't the usual Pirates they see every year. If the bullpen can consistently put together games like they played tonight, we're in great shape.


  • Iwamura's full count streak continues. Aki saw 33 pitches tonight and got 3 balls on him in every at bat. That is fantastic work from the Pirates lead off hitter. It's not often you can point to a guy who hasn't registered a hit yet as one of the top offensive performers, but this is definitely the case with Iwamura. With how things look now, he is going to find the basepaths a whole lot this year and score a lot of runs with McCutchen and Jones behind him. His patience seems to be rubbing off on other players too, as a lot of guys are showing great composure at the dish.




  • Jeff Clement looked awful. He was 0/4 with 3 strikeouts. He was not being patient at the plate and having some seriously ugly swings up there. He did not look comfortable at all at the plate, although he did play pretty sound defense again. Hopefully Jeff will keep his head up and stay within himself at the plate so he can start producing offensively.




  • The Dodgers played some really bad defense. While only one error found its way on the board for LA, there were multiple plays that could have been made to help them out. The one error that was recorded turned out to cost them the game. Lastings Milledge hit a sharp ground ball a couple steps to the right of second baseman Blake DeWitt, who got to it but had it pop out of his glove, he then rushed the throw to first and misses his target and Milledge was safe. He would come around to score the winning run on Ronny Cedeno's game-winning single.


All said and done the Pirates played an excellent ball game and came out with a well deserved win. The other attraction of tonight was Buc Night, where tickets and some food items were only one dollar. However, the food lines were extremely long all night and they ended up running out of hot dogs and small cups at a lot of the concession stands around the ballpark. There was a lot of complaining going around about these things, so it wasn't a total success. I guess they weren't expecting all those people to come out tonight. It will be interesting to see the attendance tomorrow, it's a 12:35 game and it could give us a pretty good idea on just how interested Pittsburgh is in this 2010 Pirates team. It's Paul Maholm vs. Chad Billingsley, 12:35, check back here for a liveblog to follow all the action. Let's Go Bucs!

Game 2, Dodgers vs. Pirates

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I'm heading down to the game in a couple of minutes and the liveblog has not been set up yet, so you'll have to check Raise the Jolly Roger, North Side Notch, or Bucco Fans for that.

The pitching matchup tonight is Clayton Kershaw vs. Ross Ohlendorf, should be a good one.

Here's the lineups:

Pirates:
Aki Iwamura, 2B
Andrew McCutchen, CF
Garrett Jones, RF
Ryan Doumit, C
Lastings Milledge, LF
Jeff Clement, 1B
Andy LaRoche, 3B
Ohlendorf, P
Ronny Cedeno, SS


Dodgers:

Rafael Furcal, SS
Matt Kemp, CF
Andre Ethier, RF
Manny Ramirez, LF
James Loney, 1B
Casey Blake, 3B
Blake DeWitt, 2B
Russell Martin, C
Kershaw, P




LET'S GO BUCS!

Why This Year's Pirates is Better than Last Year's Pirates

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I recently got in a little argument about the Pirates. As you might imagine, this happens quite often in my everyday life, but this one was especially interesting. A kid I know made a comment that this year's Pirates are worse than last year's Pirates, and they will almost surely lose over 100 games in 2010. I found that absolutely absurd and went on to explain to him why I disagreed. I figured I'd organize my thoughts a little better and make a post about it, so here it goes, The 5 reasons why the 2010 Pirates will win more games than the 2009 Pirates:
  1. More offensive upside. The 2009 Pirates entered the season with a middle of the batting order that everyone had seen before. We all knew what they were capable of, and we also all knew that they would almost surely not reach what they were capable of. The worst part about all that is that their ceilings were not very high. The combination of Freddy Sanchez, Nate McLouth, Ryan Doumit, and Adam LaRoche left a lot to be desired. They had seemingly all peaked offensively and there was little hope for a breakout year for any of them. We knew that McLouth could hit 25 homers, but we also knew he wasn't gonna hit over .270. There was much of the same with the rest of the lineup, we knew what we had, and it wasn't good enough to make a playoff run with. Now by no means am I going to come out here and say that the combination of McCutchen-Jones-Doumit-Clement-Milledge is clearly better than what we had in the 2-6 holes last year, there is still so much that has to happen to make that fact. However, the one fact I can say is that the ceiling for the 2010 combination is much, much higher than the 2009 model. If everybody in the lineup met their potential at the plate in 2009, the Pirates still would have struggled to compete in the central. If everybody in the 2010 lineup meets their potential, the Pirates are going to be one of the top offensive teams in the National League. While the chances of everybody meeting their potential this year is slim to none, it is nice to have that ceiling raised.

  2. Progression of the pitching staff. The Pirates did not add any starting pitchers to their big league roster this offseason, so we have seen all 5 of them a good amount of times. However, there is still a lot of untapped potential in the rotation. Now, we pretty much know the highs and lows that Zach Duke and Paul Maholm are gonna give us this year, but that's largely a good thing. They have both showed the ability to be consistent in giving the Pirates a chance to win, which is just what you want at the top of your rotation. While it would be nice to have a shutdown guy like Tim Lincecum or Roy Halladay, the Pirates aren't in terrible shape at the top. The thing that excites me is Ross Ohlendorf and Charlie Morton. These guys both had good outings and bad outings last year, and it's pretty obvious that they are not fully developed yet. Ohlendorf really came into his own in the second half of last year, and is only a few steps away from really finding his identity as a big league pitcher. That is certainly not true with Morton though, who has the potential to be better than everyone on the staff. Morton has sharper pitches and better movement than anyone, and if he continues to progress and learn how to pitch efficiently, he will be an ace in the near future. There is little doubt in my mind that Ohlendorf can replicate last year's performance and put up very solid numbers again in 2010, if not even better numbers. Those guys have very high ceilings and are sure better than any other 3-4 combination that had Ian Snell in it.

  3. A revamped bullpen. The biggest thing the Pirates did in the offseason was rework the bullpen. They lost big names like Jesse Chavez and Matt Capps, but signed new reliable arms in Brendan Donnelly, DJ Carrasco, Javier Lopez, and Octavio Dotel. There is a lot of experience in that pen, and I can see it becoming very consistent. While they are by no means one of the top bullpens in the league, I seriously believe that they good enough to win with. Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek have fantastic arms and can really shut lineups down when they are on their game. There are going to be some bumps in the road, don't expect the Pirates to win every game they lead in the 7th and 8th innings, but there is little doubt that this bullpen is better than last year's.

  4. The new identity. The Pirates have been pathetic for 17 years now, and every year just seems to be same-old same-old. However, I think it's different this year. Management has publicly said that this is the team they are going to try and win with. There will not be any more big trades or roster moves, what you see now is what you're gonna see for awhile. This has a lot of the players relaxed and focused on playing baseball. They feel very confident and at-home, knowing that management has put all their chips in on them and are going to try and make a run with them. While maybe not everyone has bought into their approach, the majority of the players seem thrilled about it, and a positive morale can only help your record.

  5. Mid-season callups. The most exciting thing in the Pirates whole system is Pedro Alvarez, our mega-prospect 3rd baseman who has 40 homer potential. He is expected to make his debut in June or July this year, and he is something special. I'm not saying he's gonna come into the big leagues and swat 20 homers in 3 or 4 months, but I do think he will do some damage offensively. He's not the only big name prospect that will be debuting for the Pirates this year, we have Brad Lincoln and Jose Tabata waiting in the wings. Both of those players are capable of developing into consistent big league players. Lincoln may not be an all-star candidate anymore, but he looks like a lock to be in that Pirate rotation for a long time. Tabata is a pretty big question mark, we really don't know what to expect, but the ceiling is high.

To sum it all up, the reason that this year's Pirates are better than last year's Pirates is because of that potential. There are so many guys that have high ceilings, that the chances of all of them being busts are very low. There is more talent on this Pirates roster than there has been in years, and that can only translate into wins. Sure, there is a definite possibility that the team will lose over 95 games again this year, and possibly even 100, but there is a more realistic possibility that they will lose less than 90, which is exciting... at least for a Pirate fan.

Starting With A Bang

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It was a great day to be a Pirate fan. It was an even better day to be a Pirate fan at PNC Park.

It was a great baseball environment today. It was a sellout crowd and everyone was excited to see their Pirates back in action. If you're reading this blog, you almost surely already know the outcome and a lot of the main details of the game. If not, you can check out the box score here. For now, I'm just gonna point out a couple of things that I noticed today.
  • First one's obvious, Garrett Jones is a monster. The second the ball left his bat in the first inning everyone in the stadium knew it was gone, the only question was how long it would fly. The result was a 456 foot bomb that bounced and rolled into the Allegheny River. His second homer was pretty much the opposite. When it came off the bat I personally thought it was a routine fly out. I thought that for awhile until I saw Manny keep retreating... and retreating. The ball sneaked into the first row of the bleachers right near the foul poll. The crowd erupted when we all figured out that it was gone.

  • Number two is about Jeff Clement. Nothing in the box score would impress you, but I was very pleased with his performance today. His first at bat he singled to right field; a very nice piece of hitting. It is crucial for a guy like Clement to learn how to hit to the opposite field. I was worried that he would be looking to kill every ball to impress everyone and feel like he belongs on the team, which in turn would probably make him try to pull everything and lead to a lot of weak contact. However, Clement looked very patient at the plate today and was able to drive the ball in his first at bat to right field. He exhibited a lot of patience in his other at bats too, working the count to full and striking out looking on a borderline pitch that he should have swung at. He drew a walk in his 3rd at bat and reached on an error in his 4th at bat, a ball he struck pretty well. Defensively he was flawless, making a nice stab on a hard liner hit by Andre Ethier in the 3rd inning.

  • The third thing involves Akinori Iwamura. In the box score all you will see is that he was 0/4 with a walk, however he played a lot better than that. Iwamura exhibited extraordinary plate patience today. He saw 5 pitches in his first at bat, 7 in his second, 7 in his third, 7 in his fourth, and 4 in his fifth. That's 6 pitches seen per at bat, pretty impressive stuff. If he keeps that up, he's gonna find himself on base a whole bunch this year.

  • The fourth and final thing deals with the bullpen. They didn't fair too well in their debut, but they weren't terrible either. The combination of Jack Taschner, DJ Carrasco, Evan Meek, Brendan Donnelly, and Octavio Dotel gave up 3 runs in their 4 innings, all of which were tagged on Carrasco, but Evan Meek didn't do his job either. They gave up 5 hits and walked only 1 in those 4 innings, so again, not too terrible but not great either. Together they threw 63 pitches, 40 of which were thrown for strikes. That's a pretty decent number. All-in-all I was only really pleased with Taschner and Dotel. Donnelly looked pretty good as well, but threw a couple of bad pitches that were hit hard.
Duke pitched pretty well, he had a tough first inning but bounced back pretty nicely. He only got 5 innings of work and 79 pitches, probably just because Russell wants to ease his pitchers into the season. Also the fact that Duke was coming to the plate with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the 5th factored in. Ryan Church pinch hit for him in that 5th inning and capitalized and had a very impressive Pirates debut with a base clearing 3 run double. When all said and done, it was an extremely impressive team effort from the Pirates. It's not very often you walk out of PNC Park hearing people cheering "Let's Go Bucs!", but it happened today, and it was awesome.

The Buccos are off tomorrow and then are back in action Wednesday night. It's Ross Ohlendorf against Clayton Kershaw and tickets are only a dollar. Until next time! Let's go Bucs!

Opening Day Liveblog!

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I'll be at the game, so I won't be chatting today, but there should still be some good baseball conversation in there. Let's go Bucs!!

Opening Day Forecast

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Well tomorrow is Easter Sunday and I have my schedule is full, and Monday morning I will be getting up and heading down to PNC Park early to enjoy my favorite day of the year, so I won't have much time to offer any pre-game stuff, so I'm just gonna post it now.

As most of you know the pitching matchup is Vicente Padilla vs. Zach Duke. I posted the probable lineups 2 posts ago, so you can go back and check those out if you would like. Here's the weather forecast (which isn't as bad as it looks), and some batter vs. pitcher stats:







Like I said, the weather report on TV said those showers will most likely miss Pittsburgh and we'll be good to play some baseball. Let's hope that prediction comes true.

As for the BVP, the Pirates have not seen Vicente Padilla very much because he pitched in the American League with the Texas Rangers for the last 3 seasons (until he came to LA near the end of last season). The guys who have faced him have not faced him very much and for the most part have not had very much success.

The Dodgers are a different story against Zach Duke however, as they have had a lot of success against him. The most notable there are Reed Johnson (6-17), Matt Kemp (6-15), and Russell Martin (7-15).

However, you never know what is going to happen on Opening Day. There is going to be a lot of energy in PNC Park and I can definitely see the Pirates coming out and impressing early. While this isn't a team that I can see jumping off to a hot start like they have in the last couple seasons, I think they are gonna play well enough to win Monday.

The guys I am going to be paying the most attention to Monday are Jeff Clement, Lastings Milledge, and Andrew McCutchen. To me, Clement's performance is going to have as big an impact as any on how this team fairs offensively this year. If he can come out and hit the ball well and hit it over the fence at a decent rate, it will be a major boost for us. If he falls flat on his face and doesn't hit the ball at all, we are going to have serious trouble finding run production. Lastings Milledge is a guy that everyone is expecting a big year from, so there is a lot of pressure on him. He seems to be handling the pressure very well and could definitely be one of the Pirates top offensive producers this year. Andrew McCutchen is the Pirates best player and has been their best hitter this spring. He's been hitting the cover off of the ball, not for much power, but he has been getting on base. He is what makes the offense go, and I expect a hot start from him.

Another thing I'm looking forward to seeing is the bullpen. Well, I really hope I don't see the bullpen Monday, but if I have to I will definitely be paying attention. It's a totally revamped group of guys and should be very interesting to see how they perform.

Baseball is almost here. Let's go Bucs!

Pirates vs. Phillies, Exhibition Liveblog

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Dodgers vs. Pirates, Early Look

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Well the Pirates season opener is now only 3 days away, and I am excited. I haven't been posting much lately, but I'm getting ready to get back into the full swing of posting every day. Let's start today with a little series look-in for the Dodgers vs. the Pirates.

The Pirates open up their season at home for the first time since 2005 when they lost both of their first two home games to the Brewers by the scores of 9-2 and 10-2. Oliver Perez and Kip Wells pitched those games for the Pirates. The roster looks just a little bit different now though...

Here's the pitching matchups:

Game 1:
Vincent Padilla (2009: 12-6, 4.46) vs. Zach Duke (2009: 11-16, 4.06)

Game 2:
Clayton Kershaw (2009: 8-8, 2.79) vs. Ross Ohlendorf (2009: 11-10, 3.92)

Game 3:
Chad Billingsley (2009: 12-11, 4.03) vs. Paul Maholm (2009: 8-9, 4.44)

Game 1 is probably the only game that will be played on Sunday or Monday that features two starting pitchers who both had ERA's over 4.00 last year. The second game has a much more interesting pitching matchup with Clayton Kershaw on the hill against Ross Ohlendorf. Kershaw was one of the best pitchers in the National League last year, despite a lot of inefficiency. He could develop into a Cy Young pitcher soon, let's just hope he isn't on his game Wednesday.

Let's compare the probable lineups, in positional order:

C: Russell Martin - Ryan Doumit
1B: James Loney - Jeff Clement
2B: Blake DeWitt - Akinori Iwamura
SS: Rafael Furcal - Ronny Cedeno
3B: Casey Blake - Andy LaRoche
LF: Manny Ramirez - Lastings Milledge
CF: Matt Kemp - Andrew McCutchen
RF: Andre Ethier - Garrett Jones


Advantage: Dodgers.

There's no doubt that this a David and Goliath series. The Dodgers are a World Series Contender and the Pirates are going to struggle to win 75 games. However, it's still baseball and anybody can beat anybody. If I had to make a prediction, I'd say the Pirates beat Padilla Monday and give the crowd a good show, but then lose the next two games and head off to Arizona as a 1-2 ballclub.