Youman sharp in debut.......

Shane Youman was sharp in his Pittsburgh return and as a result the Pirates evened the series with Milwaukee with a 6-2 win.
Youman allowed 2 runs in his 6 inning stint,but seemed to have his control in order as the Brewers seemed to be unable to lay off his slow(and marginal) stuff.
The victory was the 1st in Shane's major league career,as he was winless in his MLB debut last year in a 5 game cameo appearance.
I still think in the long run that Youman projects best as a long reliever,but I will take whatever the Pirates get from him. This was exactly the type of performance that the team always can find a place for.
Damaso Marte,B.P. Chacon and Matt Capps each pitched a scoreless inning to finish the game.
No Pirate homers,but two triples in a rarity!
Jack Wilson and Xavier Nady each providing one triple in the game.

The Tribe won a wild one in Detroit over the Tigers in extra innings 5-4.Cleveland was paced by yet another homer by recently recalled Ben Francisco (3rd) and the game winner by Casey Blake (12) with two down in the top of the 11th.
Tom Mastny was the winner to improve to 6-2 and Joe Borowski earned his 25th save on the year.

The Lakewood Blue Claws jumped out to a early lead on a 1st inning three run homer by Charlie Yarborough and held on for the rest of the night and prevailed over the Hagerstown Suns 4-3.
I was able to see Lakewood's young hurler Antonio Bastardo in this one.
Bastardi came into this game with dominating numbers in his short SAL term,but was not quite so dominating in this game.
Still,Bastardo allowed 2 runs in 6 innings,along with 7 hits in a good effort.
He fanned 3 and walked the same and topped out at 92 on the gun that I was watching.
All and all,a prospect worth keeping tabs on.

Pitching Matchups

Milwaukee: Claudio Vargas (6-1) at Pittsburgh: Ian Snell (6-5) 4:05
Cleveland: Jake Westbrook (1-3) at Detroit: Kenny Rogers (2-0) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

The New Jersey Devils were able to sign two players yesterday.
Well-traveled winger Dainus Zubrus was signed from Buffalo.
Zubrus did set career highs last year in goals and assists,but I am a bit dubious on signing players off their best year.
The positive to this is that Zubrus adds speed to the team and could be a help on the power play.
The Devils also signed journeyman defenseman Karel Rachunek from the Rangers.
This is more of a depth signing than someone expected to make a large impact.

Sean Burnett listened to the Pirates staff doctors,rested his ailing elbow as directed and was finished after one 33 pitch inning.
Burnett will now follow the direction of Zach Duke and have his elbow examined by Dr.James Andrews in Birmingham.
Watch for my opinion on the Bucco medical staff during next weeks series on how to rebuild the Pirates.

Had a chance to watch the Hamilton Tiger-Cats loss to Calgary on tape Monday.
Wish I hadn't.
Simply unable to muster any offense at all,Defense was better than expected,but that is faint praise when you allow 37 points.
The Cats take on Toronto Saturday in their home opener.
Toronto is also 0-1 having lost to the B.C. Lions at home 24-22 in week 1.

Finally,I know many do not post and I am fine with that,but for those that do,I have entered a word verification for comments.
We had 1 spanish SPAM comment,so I put this in to avoid future nonsense.
Just wanted to let you know.

All for now,back later!

Photo Credit
Youman-AP Photo-Gene Puskar