I don't think too many people are surprised to see the Pirates get shut out with the lineup they sent out today. Brandon Wood, Ronny Cedeno, Dusty Brown, and Matt Diaz were all in the lineup together and went 1-for-14 collectively (the one hit coming from Wood in the 2nd inning).
The rest of the team couldn't pick them up and collected only 5 more hits in addition to Wood's single.
The lack of offense wasn't too big of a concern through the first 6 innings, because Kevin Correia was shutting the Mets out in step with Chris Capuano. However, the Mets got a controversial run in the 7th inning that is still up for debate. Jason Bay hit a sacrifice fly to center field with runners on first and third, scoring Daniel Murphy from third, but then the Pirates appealed at second and got Angel Pagan out because he did not re-touch second after he rounded it on the foul ball, and the scorers took the run off the board on an inning-ending double play. However, between innings they put the run back up on the board, and much discussion and argument followed.
At the end of the day it didn't matter, because the Pirates didn't score and the Mets added 6 more runs in the final 2 innings of the game. The bullpen got roughed up, Chris Resop couldn't strand the runners he inherited from Correia in the 8th and charged KC with 2 additional runs along with a run of his own. After that, Danny Moskos got an out on 2 hits and was not charged with any runs, but Daniel McCutchen gave up 2 in the 9th to make it a spanking.
Ugly game for the Pirates after a solid performance Saturday night. That's 2 really poor games the Pirates have played in this 3 game set with the Mets and they are in danger of making it an even homestand with a loss tomorrow despite a 4-2 start in this 10-game set.
It would be pretty disappointing to lose 3 of 4 to a team like the Mets before hitting the road for 6 games, especially with all the buzz this homestand brought the Pirates. They won 2 series against really solid baseball teams, but are now struggling quite a bit against a mediocre one.
Paul Maholm gets the ball Monday night at 7:05 to try and earn a split with the Mets and get the Pirates back within 1 game of .500 before playing 3 in Houston.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)