Streak Stopper | Tigers 2 Pirates 0

Rick Porcello went all Charlie Morton on the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday afternoon and snapped the home team's winning streak at 4.

Porcello was incredibly efficient, throwing 84 pitches in 8 innings. He probably would have finished the game himself if his spot wasn't due in up the bottom of the 8th, but nevertheless he was pulled and Jose Valverde earned his 11th save of the year after allowing the tying run to reach 2nd base. This was one of the most dominating pitching performances I have attended in awhile. Porcello only struck out 3 batters, but got 10 groundouts and 7 flyouts. The ball was only squared up 2 or 3 times off of him. Neil Walker hit a ball hard in the 2nd inning but Porcello put it away with a good reflex grab for the first out of the inning. Ronny Cedeno kept his hitting streak going with a line drive double 6th, and Lyle Overbay put a charge into one in the 5th but left fielder Ryan Raburn retired him near the warning track in left center.

That was pretty much it for the Pirates offensively off Porcello in this game. They threatened in the 9th when Xavier Paul singled and Andrew McCutchen reached after being hit by a pitch. However, Valverde struck out Ryan Doumit and then got two groundouts from Garrett Jones and Walker to end the game.

The great Tigers pitching performance came at the expense of Paul Maholm, who had just another solid outing that resulted in a loss because of the lack of run support. The Pirates offensive struggles with Maholm on the mound are getting just ridiculous. Here's Paul's run support for his 9 2011 starts:

4/2 vs. CHC: 3 runs
4/7 vs. COL: 1 run
4/14 vs. MIL: 1 run
4/19 vs. FLA: 0 runs
4/25 vs. WSH: 4 runs
4/30 vs. COL: 1 run
5/6 vs. HOU: 2 runs
5/11 vs. LAD: 0 runs
5/16 vs. WSH: 2 runs
5/22 vs. DET: 0 runs

That's an average of 1.6 runs per game. That's not going to result in a lot of wins, and in Paul's case it has him 1 win in 9 starts (7 losses). That's really the only negative part about Maholm's 2011 season, he actually lowered his season ERA to 3.65 today. He's been striking guys out at a good rate too this year, and that continued this afternoon as he struck out 5 Tigers in 5.1 innings.

The offense was looking great during this 4-game win streak, but they didn't show up tonight. A lot of that credit has to go to Porcello, but the Pirates didn't go without opportunities. The Pirates had runners in scoring position with nobody out twice in this game and couldn't cash in either time.

It was in no ways a crippling loss for the Pirates, Maholm pitched well and kept the Pirates in the game the whole way. Sometimes you just get beat by an opposing pitcher, and that's what happened today.

The Pirates have tomorrow off and then they start a short 2-game series with the Braves Tuesday night. They are now 2 games from .500 so a little sweep would be just fantastic heading into another road trip.

I've got a couple new things brewing on the blog here that you'll be seeing in the next couple days, so be sure to check back. Until then, peace out Pittsburgh.