Pirates late rally sinks Brewers,Wally Schirra passes away.

The Pirates held onto the 4-2 lead that they possessed when I left for work to defeat the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.
Milwaukee led 2-0 entering the 7th before Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay hit back to back doubles to trim the lead to 2-1.
After the next two batters were retired,Jose Bautista hit a 2 run homer to lift Pittsburgh into the lead 3-2.
It was Bautista's 2nd HR of the year and then the slumping Ronny Paulino (Paulino's 3rd HR) drilled one into the seats for the 4-2 final margin.
Tom Gorzelanny pitched 7 solid innings to pick up the win and improve to 4-1 on the season.
Gorzelanny allowed 2 runs on 6 hits,fanning 3 and walking the same amount.
Gas Can Torres pitched the 9th for his 9th save of the year.
The Bucs send Paul Malholm to the mound tonight vs the Brewers Claudio Vargas.
Vargas enjoyed the Bucs last visit to the tune of 11 strikeouts.
Game time 8;05

Bullpen Notes

In sad news- Wally Schirra,one of the "Original 7" NASA Astronauts died yesterday at the age of 84 of a heart attack in Calfornia.
Schirra was the only Astronaut to participate in each of the 3 major NASA programs of the 1960's by flying in the Mercury,Gemini and Apollo programs.
Schirra and his crew,by managing a successful mission on Apollo 8,likely saved the program at a time that a failure (1st mission after the Apollo fire) could have meant the end of manned space flight for quite a while.
Schirra's passing leaves only two of the Mercury Astronauts living-John Glenn and Scott Carpenter.

Here is an article on former Hagerstown Suns pitcher Jon Niese off John Sickel's site.
Jon was a nice guy last year and he is pitching very well at High A St.Lucie.
Here is hoping he continues for his sake and mine..
Why mine?
I have him in our fantasy league that drafts minor leaguers.

Jeff Heimberger narrowly avoided injury last night as a foul ball off the bat of West Virginia's Stephen Chapman hit the bill of his helmet.
Jeff was fortunate as he was not paying attention that the ball was not a few inches lower or he would been seriously hurt.
The ball looked cool though with the large black mark from his helmet.
Chapman signed the ball after the game,if Jeff brings it over ,I will post a picture here.

Only 3 autographs last night,as I did not need many,but 1 was an unexpected surprise.
Added another John Curtis and new Hagerstown Suns pitcher Zack Baldwin,but also traded an extra card that I had to get another collectors extra Kenny Holmberg.
I did not have any Holmberg's so it worked out well..

Photo Credits
Baseball-AP Photo Jeffrey Phelps
Wally Schirra-NASA