Bucco Blasts win in 10,Kinston shades Keys 3-2.

Back to back homers from Xavier Nady and Ryan Doumit in the top of 10th lifted the Pirates to a 7-5 win over the Florida Marlins.
Kevin Gregg retired the 1st two Bucs in the inning before the homers to give the Pirates the victory.
The homers screwed my fantasy team (Gregg is on my team),but a Pirate win is more important.
At least for today.Nady had homered earlier in the game,the two moved him to 13 on the season.
Doumit's shot was his 4th and Jose Bautista hit his 7th in the 3rd inning.
B.P. Chacon picked up the win,improving to 4-1 and Matt Capps earned his 7th save.
The series concludes today at noon.

I went to see the Frederick Keys-Kinston Indians game last night.
Interesting evening.
An excellent,well-played game which ended in a 3-2 Kinston win,but peripheral things too.
Talked to a very nice couple from Silver Spring for the evening,they chatted about Canadian sports from their time spent in Ottawa.
Former Yankee,Diamondback and Ranger manager Buck Showalter was there too in the dugout of the Indians.
I did not know he was there until after the game,when he went running by, chattering loudly.
I asked the player that was signing,if that was Showalter and he rolled his eyes and replied "yeah".
Maybe he is a pain for some reason???
Also former Lake County Captain and local product P.J.Hiser was at the game to see his old teammates from the past.
Hiser will be moving from the area soon to move to Portland,Oregon.
Best wishes to P.J.!
Talked to the radio voice of the Lake County Captains-Craig Deas.
Lake County is in town for two games vs the Suns,but were off last night,so Deas made the 25 mile trek to Frederick to see former Captains that play for Kinston.
Super nice guy and I will likely see him around the next two nights.

As far as the game goes.
Frederick took a 2-0 lead with 2 in the bottom of the 2nd and Kinston scored 3 in their 3rd for all the scoring.
The two team combined had just two extra base hits,Kinston doubles by Chris De La Cruz and Max Ramirez in the 3rd.
The Ramirez double scored the eventual winning run.
The lack of offense was due to excellent pitching by Kevin Dixon of the K-Tribe and Carlos Perez of the Keys,but the wind was definitely a help to the pitchers,as a kind breeze was blowing in.

Pitching Matchups
Pittsburgh:Zach Duke (3-6) at Florida:Scott Olsen (5-6) 12:00
Oakland:Joe Blanton (7-4) at Cleveland:Paul Byrd (6-3) 12:00

On the signing front
Did Ok for being by myself.
Was able to get all the Kinston top prospects that were there.Max Ramirez,Josh Rodriguez,John Drennan,Wes Hodges (more on him later) Frank Herrmann and Steven Wright all signed,as did other K-Tribe players.
Top pitching prospect David Huff was in Florida with an injury and Jared Goedert was in Cleveland with an injury as well.
Looks like a return trip in August,if they have returned by then.
Not bad for being without Ryan or Battling Bob for help.

Bullpen Notes
Chatted with former Captain and now Kinston pitcher Steven Wright about his poor outing in Hagerstown vs the Suns earlier this year.
"That was the worst game that I have pitched in my life!" laughed Wright.
"I had nothing that night".
That game certainly seems to be the aberration for Steven,as he got a promotion 3 months into his 1st pro season.
Good luck to Steven on his career.

Wes Hodges certainly has a system on dealing with autograph collectors.
Wes will sign one of each card,but that is it.
For the most part,I don't have a real problem with that.
Although last night,I was hoping to get him to sign 2 of his Kinston cards,so Ryan could have 1.
No dice-just 1.
But the interesting part came after he signed for me,as another collector asked him to sign a created card.
The card basically has a baseball pictured with top prospect on it.Kinda looks like a 1959 Topps card.Like the one pictured.
Hodges refused saying "my dad told me to just sign "real" cards".
The Collector tried to explain that it was a real baseball card,It was a card with a baseball on it.
Hodges was not buying-reiterating again about his dad's thoughts.
That pretty much ended it for him as Hodges walked away.
But hope was not lost for Ryan,as Bobby (a fellow collector here in Hagerstown) asked me,if Hodges signed everything for me.
I said no,that I got 1 of each.
He took them down and got Hodges to sign for him.
Bobby reports that Hodges looked at them quizzically,but then signed.
I gave him the USA national card that Wes signed for the help.
Thanks to Bobby and his wife Brenda for the other assistance during the game as well.

Bob Smizik writes about the proposed Pirate fan walkout Saturday.
The discussion of the Pirates removing all references to it off their message boards,refusing to allow their announcers to comment on it and not allowing FSN Pittsburgh to show any of it at all.
What is wrong "Nickels"?
If your guys would be doing their job,there would be no protest.
Gutless.

NBA Draft tonight.
Cavaliers have no picks due to the incompetence of former GM Jim Paxson.
Paxson traded the 1st rounder for the immortal Jiri Welsch.

CFL action begins tonight for real with two games.
The defending Grey Cup champs,the B.C. Lions travel to Toronto to battle the Argonauts,while the Winnipeg Blue Bombers play the Edmonton Eskimos in the other game.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats play Saturday vs Calgary.
We will have coverage.

Here is a link to a CFL prediction site for anyone interested.
I have played there for a few years now.
Sign up soon,if you dont want to give away the 1st week.

Back tomorrow with news,Captains-Suns and more on the signing front.

Photo Credit
Doumit/Nady-AP Photo-J.Pat Carter