What is it with Chicago??

The Pirates continued their futility against Chicago teams with an embarrassing 16-5 loss in Chi-town to the White Sox.
Ian Snell was chased after 5 innings and 7 runs in falling to 3-7,but his bullpen "help" was even worse.
Franquelis Osoria and Marino Salas combined to allow eight runs in just two and a third and Sean Burnett allowed 1 run in an outing (1 and two thirds of an inning) that epitomized the term-"Mop Up".
As hard as it must be to believe from a 16-5 loss,there was a point that this looked like a good night for the visitors from Pennsylvania.
After the Chi-Sox scored a first inning run,the Buccos roared back with 4 runs in the visitors half of the second.
Jason Michaels doubled home both Adam LaRoche and Ryan Doumit and shortly thereafter was singled home by Doug Mientkiewicz for a 3-1 lead.
Mientkiewicz would score to conclude the Pirate runs at 4 as he tagged and trotted home on a Nate McLouth sac fly.
The White Sox tied the game in the third off Snell,but the Pirates tied the game again in their next at bat on Jose Bautista's long homer to left (6).
The game was all downhill after the Pittsburgh fifth,as Chicago would score runs in each at bat from the fifth until the games end and when that happens you have a lopsided game.
Once more,this showed the Pirates glaring weakness in long and middle relief.
Pittsburgh simply has to rely on mediocrities like Osoria far more than an average team should and that is how nightmares like tonight happen.
Don't get me wrong,I am not advocating making trades yet to improve middle relief,but trying to get the point across that bad teams have some really bad pitching and this team has to bank on bad pitchers performing better than their abilities.
The series continues tomorrow at 8:11,lets hope the game is better than this.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (5-5, 6.65 ERA) at Chicago White Sox:Mark Buerhle (3-6, 4.47 ERA) 8:11

Bullpen Notes

The Pirates brought their third and fourth rounders into the fold with the signing of shortstops Jordy Mercer and Chase D'Arnaud.
This combined with the previous days signing of their eighth and ninth rounders-Jeremy Farrell
and Matthew Hague could comprise the starting infield at State College.
Either Mercer or D'Arnaud could see time at second for the Spikes and a fast start for either could make them Hickory bound to reduce the logjam,while time at first base for Hague would not be a surprise to me to avoid splitting time with Farrell at third.

The Spikes lost their season opener to Jamestown,but 12th round pick Calvin Anderson did blast a three run homer in his pro debut.
The 6'7 Anderson should be the main first baseman,but Matthew Hague could see time there as well.

The Cleveland Indians quickly signed their top pick,Lonnie Chisenhall,to the bottom line and assigned the former Pirate draftee to Mahoning Valley.
Chisenhall received a 1.1 million dollar bonus and will be the Scrappers starting shortstop,but will be moved to the hot corner in instructional league play.

The Indians also signed a name from the past in former All-Star Morgan Ensberg and sent him to Buffalo.
Ensberg was recently released from the Yankees.
It is hard to believe how fast a player can fall-just three years ago Ensberg hit 36 homers for the Houston Astros.

Former Devil Igor Larionov finally got his deserved election to the Hockey Hall of Fame today.
If you went strictly by NHL numbers,Larionov would have been a borderline selection,but when you consider his prime years were spent in international play-he is a slam dunk entry.

Wish I could say the same for the other inductee-Glenn Anderson.
Sorry,but I do not think Anderson measures up.
His stats look impressive,but he played in the highest offensive era in the history of the sport and was playing with arguably the greatest forward ever in Wayne Gretzky for most of his strong seasons and when Gretzky left Anderson-Anderson's stats went with him.

The Hockey Hall simply has too many good players in it.
The Hall should be for great players.

Look for a Devils related post sometime this week with off season advice.
Until next time!

Photo Credits
Snell-Brian Kersey-AP Photo
Larionov-Unknown