The Pittsburgh Pirates increased their winning streak to five games behind seven and a third solid innings from the returning Tom Gorzelanny with a 5-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Gorzelanny evened his record at 3-3 with the effort that was only marred by a long two run homer in the Atlanta first by Mark Teixeira.
The best part of the win for Gorzelanny,in my opinion, was the reduction of walks as Gorzo only walked two Braves to go with scattering seven hits and whiffing 4.
The offensive stars tonight were Ronny Paulino (Gasp) and Jason Bay.
Paulino cut the Atlanta lead in half in the second when his deep sacrifice fly to center scored Bay,who narrowly beat a strong throw by Mark Kotsay.
Bay then gave Gorzelanny all the runs that he would need with a two run homer (7) in fourth to lift the Bucs to the lead.
Paulino's 6th inning double scored two insurance runs to push the final to 5-2.
Matt Capps finished the game with a three up three down ninth for his ninth save of the season.
The series continues Sunday at 1:35 in a game that will likely be fast moving with a large amount of rain in the forecast.
Pitching Matchup
Atlanta:Jair Jurrjens (4-2 2.84 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Zach Duke (1-2 4.60 ERA) 1:35
Bullpen Notes
A good first start for the newest Pirate Jason Michaels as he gave Nate McLouth the night off in center and slapped three hits out.
Although Michaels could have cost the Pirates a run in the fourth inning as he was clearly picked off first by Chuck James and Mark Teixeira tagged him well before he dove back to the bag.
But the umpire missed the call and ruled him safe and in the same at bat,Michaels would score on Jason Bay's homer.
Nice to see that the Florida Marlins are going to finally be able to keep one of their young stars in Hanley Ramirez.
The six year 70 million dollar deal buys out some of Ramirez's early arbitration years and keeps the Marlins in control of the young standout.
I wonder if Ramirez will still be a shortstop at the end if the contract,but his bat will play no matter the position,so this is a good move for Florida.
On the signing front
Two different teams to report on in this edition.
The Greensboro Grasshoppers were in town last week for one of their two visits to Hagerstown this season and I was able to get all that I had signed.
This edition of the Hoppers is not as loaded with prospects as past teams,but I did get each of their top three prospects in catcher Torre Langleys (signed his NY/Penn top prospect and Jamestown card),pitcher Hector Correa (same two as Langley) and the top prospect in outfielder Hunter Pence.
Pence signed his 2006 Jamestown card and his 2005 USA Jr.National team card.
I also was able to get one of the newest Suns ,Jamie Lehman. to sign his 05 Vermont and 06 Savannah cards.
The other two additions to the Hagerstown roster have 07 Vermont cards,but will have to wait until next weeks homestand vs Kannapolis and Lexington.
Battlin Bob and I went to the getaway game between Kinston and Frederick,even though I did not have much for the Indians.
But I was able to clean up the few odds and ends that I had.
Beau Mills signed three cards and Todd Martin signed his Mahoning Valley and NY/Penn prospect card and after a few others finished the K-Tribe off,we decided to work on a few Frederick cards.
But other than the always gracious Pedro Beato talking to us for a bit and signin
g a few,it was pretty much unsuccessful.However,we decided to wait after the game to get the most talked about player in last years draft-Matt Wieters and try our luck.
Matt signed all 4 cards that we had and was very patient in signing for everyone in line.
I had been putting off trying to get Matt to sign,since the line follows him no matter where he goes,but his time in Frederick is growing shorter by the day.
Glad to get that taken care of and that Wieters was not bad at all.
Also one signature from the mailbox as former Devil goalie Sean Burke returned his cards signed today.
Photo Credits
Bay:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Wieters:Just Cards
2 comments:
Ozzie Martinez, though not a prospect, will make it to the big leagues. One of the better players I've seen in Hagerstown, and he's only 19.
I did get Ozzie to sign his Jamestown card.
He hit a homer one of the two games that I saw Greensboro,but seems like he needs plate discipline.
But his age (19) works in his favor at this level,so I would not say I disagree with you,but not sure I would go far enough to say he will make it for sure.
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