Webb spins Arizona over Pirates

Ian Snell looked to be getting closer to rounding into form against Arizona,but as solid as his five innings was,he was no match for Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks escaped with a 3-1 win in Game 1 of the four game set.
Webb did not allow a hit until the fifth and allowed just one run and that could have arguably been zero as I thought Freddy Sanchez could have been called out at home as he scored on a Jason Bay single in the sixth.
Snell was the loser in falling to 2-6 and lasted just five innings,but there were signs that a possible turnaround is coming as he allowed just 2 runs (and only one earned) and struck out 9 Diamondbacks over the five inning term.
For the first time in quite a while,Snell seemed to have a little bit of confidence in his control,even though he still walked three.
I was encouraged by Tyler Yates and his scoreless two innings as Yates has been struggling lately.
The anemic offense only scratched out six hits for the evening.
The series continues tonight at seven.

Pitching Matchup
Arizona:Dan Haren (6-4, 3.40) at Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (4-5, 7.22) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Jim McKay died today at home at the age of 87.
McKay was considered the face of Olympic television coverage for years at ABC and of course was most famous for his classic coverage of the 1972 Munich games when terrorists took members of the Israeli team hostage and eventually all were killed.
McKay also is famous to anyone that has heard the Wide World of Sports theme and introduction as he is the narrator of the intro and long time host of the show as well.
McKay was also a key member of ABC's Horse Racing coverage and perhaps the moment that he is most famous for was an intro that he did one year for the Pimlico Special.
McKay looked into the camera and went into promo mode and said "Hi,I'm Jack McGoolahee and did the intro spiel".
I might have understood that if that was his real name,but his real name was Jim McManus and that makes me laugh and befuddles me at the same time!

Floyd Mayweather retires and claims he has achieved his goal of being the greatest fighter of all time.
Neither is true.
Nothing gets attention like announcing your retirement and his track record leaves him far short of the latter.
Mayweather's career over the long term (assuming this is for real) will be looked at in the same vein as Roy Jones-a fighter with huge skills,that was not that exciting to watch,ducked the elite competition (Miguel Cotto is the true reason that this is going on) and was simply not that well liked-despite what each would say publicly.
The thing that neither of the two never seemed to figure out is this-you can be the best even if you lose one or two- if you always fight the best and duck no man.

WBC Middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik defends his strap tonight in Atlantic City against Great Britain's Gary Lockett.
Lockett is a mandatory defense for Pavlik,but is not expected to be too much trouble.
The bout is on HBO.

HBO's rivals over at Showtime counter with a rematch with Welterweight implications as Carlos
Quintana and Paul Williams battle in a rematch of their bout of a few months back.
Quintana took a close decision in that matchup.
The other fight on that card is Vernon Forrest putting his WBC Jr Middleweight belt on the line against "Contender" winner Sergio Mora.
Some bias here first-I hate the Contender show.
The fighters that they use are not world class fighters and I hate the fact that the fights are only 5 rounds.
Mora could not break a bubble with his punches and is overmatched here.

Our predictions
Pavlik KO 5 Lockett
Williams close decision over Quintana
Forrest KO 7 Mora.

Want a sleeper at a big price to stop Big Brown's Triple Crown bid today?
Take a flyer on Denis of Cork.

Until tomorrow when I can breathlessly report on Elizabeth Schulze bobblehead night!

Photo Credits
Sanchez:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Pavlik:AP Photo