The lost series

Sometimes you have a team that you just don’t match up well with and you’ll loose a lot against them. For example, every time the Yankees play the Angels, the Halos seem to win the series or even sweep the series. It looks like we are seeing that at an extreme level with our PBC vs. Brewers.

The streak is now at what? 16 games? And I really thought we would have a chance to pull out a win with Maholom pitching this series. As it turns out Paul didn’t pitch well but left with a 5-2 lead. However the bullpen continued pouring gas on a fire and blew the game.

And that sets the stage for yesterday’s game when Snell pitched a whale of a game but lost 1-0 and he threw 131 pitches in the process. If you ask me, this is the first real major abuse of a pitcher that I have seen with John Russell during his tenure. I hope that this doesn’t become a usual thing with him although I can completely understand what his thought process is, he doesn’t trust the bullpen – with good reason.

You also have to wonder if this is the start of the offense starting to feel the loss of Doumit, Wilson and McLouth. From all account, Nate McAwsome will be back in the line up tomorrow night against the Reds and we’ll have to see how he comes back after his week off. According to the Post-Gazette, Nate feels 100%.

A good weekend

Another quality start by the starting pitching staff. I think that I can get kind of used to this starting pitching. An 8 – 3 victory over Peavy and the Padres sure makes the weekend go down a lot easier. Strong starting pitching by Olendorf, another good day at the plate by Adam LaRoche (2 HRs) and even Robinson Diaz got into the act with a two RBI single to tie the game up.

The Pirates are now 11 – 7 and that’s pretty amazing when you consider that 1/3 of the starting line up was out for this series. With Domout and Wilson on the DL and McLouth out you don’t expect the offense to put out 21 runs, but that is what they did.

Now the Bucs move on to Milwaukee to play the Brewers. Another 2 out of 3 would be nice.

Back in the swing of things

I’ve decided to re-open this blog. Why? Mostly because I feel like having an outlet with out having to bore the reader of my other blog. Another excellent win by the Buccos last night with Duke pitching into the 9th inning. I’ll write more later today.