Sunday, June 29, 2008

Bay's bomb ends a rainy night in 13 innings!

Jason Bay ended a long and dreary night in the rain at PNC Park with his 16th homer of the season to lift the Pirates to a 4-3 win in the 13th inning over Tampa Bay.
The game was delayed 45 minutes in starting due to brutal thunderstorms in Pittsburgh that eventually found their way here.
The rain never really left Steeltown as the game was played in conditions that were better suited to Heinz Field than PNC Park.
Ty Taubenheim gave a more than credible effort in his first Pirate appearance as he lasted six innings and allowed just two runs on seven hits.
Taubenheim was returned to Indianapolis after the game with the roster shuffling,but he pitched well enough to return for a second start next week.
Taubenheim even added an RBI as his fifth inning double (that almost left the yard) scored Jose Bautista for a temporary 2-1 lead.
Tampa tied the game in the sixth and that sent Taubenheim from the game and gives me the chance to comment on something that I have already gotten tired of seeing from John Russell and Jeff Andrews.
I am not sure which of these two are making the decision to remove pitchers or if it is a joint call,but all too often the staff is going too long with mediocre hurlers that are basically five inning pitchers and trying to push them for extra innings.
This usually results in negatives as any positives from the Dumatraits,Taubenheims etc often are washed away by simply asking too much from a pitcher that is over-performing to begin with.
I know the bullpen is not much better,but still this needs to at least be looked at.
Doug Mientkiewicz returned the lead to Pittsburgh in the seventh when his pinch hit double scored Adam LaRoche.
But Damaso Marte could not hold the lead when in a 15 pitch at bat,the Rays used a pinch hitter in Jonny Gomes to take Marte over the fence and tie the game until Bay's heroics.
Battlin Bob's favorite (Not really) John Van Benschoten picked up the win in relief for his first win of the season (1-2).
The series will be decided at 1:35.

Pitching Matchup
Tampa:Andy Sonnanstine (8-3 4.85 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (6-6 6.43 ERA) 1:35

Bullpen Notes

Before the game,the Pirates recalled T.J. Beam and sent Nyjer Morgan back to the Hoosier state.
This will be a continuing trend.

Here is an interesting article on the not so secret secret on the Cleveland Indians moving their AAA farm club to Columbus from the jilted perspective of Buffalo.
This is not a "Buffalo issue" as much as a long awaited chance to invade the neutral Ohio territory of Columbus and rid the area of casual Reds fans.

More credit to the Frederick Keys,who not only gave away a limited edition team set to kids,but other items to all fans.
I picked up a Keys pint glass to go with my Hagerstown Suns from last year.
I really loved those glasses,so of course that promotion was not returned-Just my luck.
Rachel grabbed a t-shirt,Ryan a bat (which he gave to Rachel,what a guy!) and Battlin Bob added a Keys cap.
Great work by the Keys.

A note to the guys in the Hagerstown Suns front office-I liked the sticker nights,but I would like a limited team set with completely different cards like the Keys even better!
But make them for all fans,the one thing that I would change about the Keys card giveaway is that all fans should get one,not just 12 and under.

On the signing front

With yet another visit from either Lakewood or Delmarva,the signing front has been kinda slow lately.
Picking off a Hagerstown Sun here and there and the occasional Blue Claw or Shorebird has been about as good as it gets,but suddenly things became interesting-the Suns finally received their first major leaguer on a rehab assignment in Austin Kearns.
Of course,this was touted as a reason that the Nationals wanted their SAL team here,but Potomac usually gets first dibs on the rehab assignments.
Kearns was very nice,talked a little,if prompted and signed one item for everyone.
More than fair and not a problem at all.
I came away quite impressed with the Nationals flychaser.

Other than that,not much new here in Hagerstown as both of the visiting teams do not have team sets out yet and that is a pet peeve.
I cannot blame anyone,just a coincidence that Lakewood and Delmarva visit here so much,yet their team set has to be done in one series.
And that is no different than the one visit teams.
I did add the SAL top prospect set from the Suns team store and was able to add both Delmarva players in Tyler Henson and John Mariotti,who seemed kinda surprised to be in the set!
I was able to get one of the Lakewood duo in Dominic Brown,who is the best player that I have seen here this season.
Apologies to Mike,who prefers Greensboro's Osvaldo Martinez as his top choice.

Last night on a hot and crowded night in Frederick,I did very well working on the Kinston Indians as I was able to get every player there except for one-a non-prospect that did not seem all that interested in signing for anyone.
I was able to talk a little bit with my favorite players in the Indians organization-outfielder Nick Weglarz and pitcher Josh Tomlin.
Weglarz chatted about his recent appearance on Indians minor league magazine on Sports Time Ohio and his adjustment to the Carolina League.
Nick also is a member of my minor league fantasy baseball team and has quite a future ahead of him in Cleveland.
I talked to Tomlin about Texas Tech baseball (he attended there),but he had to cut things a bit shorter than usual.
Josh always calls me sir,which shows me two things.
His parents did a great job raising him and I am getting old!
Other prospects of note that signed their K-Tribe cards were SS Carlos Rivero,1b Beau Mills,2b Jared Goedart and pitchers Hector Rondon and Neil Wagner.
Very good day,but we left after a half inning in a very unusual move for us.
Why?
Temps in the mid 90's that made me borderline sick and a huge Frederick crowd that made it difficult to see.
So we went home before the thunderstorm hit and watched the Pirates.
The game was shortened by rain,but Tomlin went all the way in a 3-0 win.

Until next time,when the only interleague game left is the makeup game with the Yankees and we are one day closer to some new teams finally coming to the Muni!

Photo Credits
Bay:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Kearns:The Spoiler
Tomlin:Unknown

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