Sheets bends but does not break in 4-1 Milwaukee win

Every member of the Pittsburgh starting lineup had a base hit for the game and the team finished with 11 of them,but only once could Pittsburgh bust through with a run and Ben Sheets finished with a complete game victory over the Pirates 4-1.
Only Xavier Nady's solo shot (6) into the seats in the fourth inning was the difference in watching a game composed of scoreboard goose eggs.
Nady's homer tied the game at one after a Brewer run in the second inning,but Milwaukee took the lead for good on (again) sloppy Bucco defense as Adam LaRoche's 5th inning butchering of a routine grounder of Rickie Weeks led to the lead run for the visitors as Weeks would score on a Ryan Braun triple.
Braun would shortly thereafter score and the Brewers would add one more run in the following inning on a solo homer by Weeks for the 4-1 final.
Ian Snell continued his streak of average pitching in dropping to 2-3 this season.
Snell allowed all 4 runs on 9 hits in his six innings of work and whiffed six Brewers,while walking two.
The strikeouts are a bit encouraging as Snell's have been down this year,but all and all-Snell just looks like another guy out there and certainly not the type of special pitcher that the Pirates locked up to a long term deal over the winter.
The Pirate bullpen tossed three scoreless innings to finish the contest out.
The Brewers go for the Steel City Sweep tonight at 7.

Pitching Matchup
Milwaukee:David Bush (1-4 6.05 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (3-4 6.64 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

The Post-Gazette is reporting that the Pirates are down to two choices with their second overall pick in the amateur draft and it is the same two that I am torn between in the mock draft.
Vanderbilt 3rd baseman Pedro Alvarez or Georgia high school shortstop Tim Beckham are the two and both have attributes to recommend them.
Do you take the safer and closer to big league ready Alvarez or do you take the younger,experience needy,but possibly the explosively talented player in Beckham that you passed over so many times in the past?
Very tough call,but one thing to keep an eye on is this-Alvarez is represented by Scott Boras.
Always keep that into considerations.

The Cleveland Browns weak secondary became weaker yesterday when top backup corner Daven Holly tore up his knee and will likely miss the 2008 season.
Holly is not a great corner by any means,but his loss gives the Browns a missing nickel corner and the loss of any backup veteran presence.
This may have forced the Browns to pay more than they might have wanted to for a released veteran when the June 1 cuts begin.

One possibility could be safety Stuart Schweigert,who was released by the Raiders.
The former Oakland starter could help the Browns in some situations,even though he is not a corner.

Great post by our friend Mike over at his blog on the loss of another downtown business here in Hagerstown.
Mike also relates the Hagerstown Suns situation there as well and nails the problems in the State on their willingness to hand many other communities money for new stadiums and screwing Hagerstown in any attempt to renovate the almost 80 year old Municipal Stadium.

And finally-this humorous article on the verbal wars between MSNBC and Fox News and especially Keith Olbermann and "Bill-O".
Olbermann is far from blameless in this stuff,but anyone that calls out Bill-O and his version of "Journalism" (snicker) is all right by us!!!

Photo Credits
Nady:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Alvarez:Unknowm
Beckham:Rivals.Com