Pirates split two during a hiatus

I missed two games in Pittsburgh and the Bucs split both games.
On Thursday,the seldom used Jose Castillo stroked a pinch hit single in the 11th inning to score Ryan Doumit and give a 5-4 win to the Pirates.
Castillo rarely plays anymore,but chose a good time to step up!
Ronny Paulino hit another homer (7th) for the second night in a row for the only Pittsburgh long ball.
It seems that perhaps the PNC Park fans booing him Tuesday may have lit a fire under Paulino.
Lets hope he can keep it up as Paulino has the potential to be a good catcher.
The other Pirates earning RBI were Jack Wilson,Jose Bautista and Nate McLouth.
Salomon Torres got the win,his 1st, and moved to 1-3 on the year.

On Friday,the Cincinnati Reds came to the Steel City and hammered the Pirates 13-4.
Ian Snell was pounded for 6 runs in 5 innings in falling to 7-10.
Snell and pitching coach Jim Colborn appeared to have words in the dugout during the game,but both waved it off after the contest.
Ryan Doumit hit his 9th homer as part of a 2 RBI night.
Other Pirate RBI went to Adam LaRoche and Jose Bautista.
Matt Belisle continued his mastery of the Bucs in getting the win for the Reds.
Belisle had not won since May and of his 6 wins this year,3 are vs Pittsburgh.
Some guys just have your number,I guess.
Series continues tonight at 7:05,as Matt Morris makes his Pittsburgh Pirate premiere.

The Hagerstown Suns lost to the Greenville Drive last night 3-1 in a fast and well played game.
Ryan Phillips of Greenville fired 7 scoreless innings and allowed just 2 hits,while Zack Baldwin pitched well for the Suns,as he allowed just 1 run in a 6 and a third inning stint.
This was the best game that I have seen all season as far as both teams playing well.

Pitching Matchup

Cincinnati: Bobby Livingston (2-2) at Pittsburgh: Matt Morris (7-7) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

First,Quick note on the blog.
From now on,one must be Google registered to comment here.
All opinions are welcomed,whether or not you agree with me,but commenting anonymously is no longer allowed.
Feel free to state your opinion,lets just know where the opinion is coming from.
Anyone can still read,just not post unless registered.

The Poll is moving along and even though,for now,more of you out there disagree with my take on the Suns than agree-I am still encouraged.
For there to be negative votes out there means that more people are reading here than I thought and that is why I write.

In a surprise,the Pirates are removing Shane Youman from the rotation for Matt Morris.
I figured it would be Tony Armas,but between the solid performance of Armas vs the Cardinals and the fact that Youman might be better suited for bullpen work,I cannot complain too much.
Not sure how well this will work,but it is worth a short term look.

Jesse Lumsden ran for 211 yards and Jason Maas tossed 3 touchdowns as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats avenged their loss to Winnipeg last week with a 43-22 victory .
The win improved the Cats to 1-5 and gave Charlie Taffe his 1st win as Hamilton coach.
Congrats to Taffe and the Tabbies!

Got some Greenville players last night and will work on more tonight,so look for a on the signing front tomorrow.
Finally got Tommy Herr to sign his two Hagerstown cards vs Augusta on Thursday,so you will not be reading any further complaints about Herr from me.
I will leave anything about him to others from now on-promise!

And finally Cumberland's Aaron Laffey will make his MLB debut for the Indians today in Minnesota vs the Twins.
Laffey has been dominant this season at both AA Akron and AAA Buffalo,so he has earned his shot in the bigs.

Photo Credit
Doumit-AP Photo-Keith Srakocic