On Saturday night,the Pirates used an astounding late power surge with three home runs in the last innings to lift Pittsburgh to a stunning 11-10 win over the Cardinals.
Jason Michaels ended the game with a two run longball (4) to end the game in the 10th after the Cardinals had taken the lead in the top of the tenth.
Michaels shot foiled the St.Louis offense that pounded Pittsburgh pitching for 22 hits and was
the third of the three seat shots that kept the Bucs in the game.Jason Bay smacked the second of his two bombs (18 & 19) in the eighth to cut the lead to 10-6 and as part of a four run ninth that forced the extra frame,Nate McLouth slammed his 19th of the season.
Earlier in the game,Adam LaRoche hit his 11th of the season.
Bay finished the evening with five RBI in his season high.
The downside?
Yoslan Herrera was as ineffective as projected as he was pounded for six runs in four and a third innings and allowed 11 hits in the span.
The bullpen was bad as well,as the Pirates used six members of the pen and only two escaped without allowing a run.
Denny Bautista got the win (3-1) despite allowing a run in his only inning.
What a game!
The air went out of the tires just hours later as the Pirates continued their trend of falling behind,scrapping their way back into the game and watching the bullpen hand the game to the opposition.
The Cardinals leaped to a 4-1 lead,surrendered it and then used the appearance of "rubber armed" Franquelis Osoria to put the game away in a 11-6 St.Louis win.
Xavier Nady singled in Chris Gomez in inning number one for an early 1-0 lead and Ian Snell seemed to be sharp from the start.
That lasted three innings as the Cards scored 4 runs in the 4th with three of them on an Aaron Miles homer off Snell.
Snell would last five innings,allowing the 4 runs on five hits,walking three and whiffing an encouraging six batters.
The Pirates would tie the game in the fifth as Ryan Doumit doubled home Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay then singled home Jack Wilson and Doumit.
Each team then swapped sixth inning runs as Sean Burnett allowed a run in his only inning,but was picked up by Chris Gomez's double that gave the Bucs a 6-5 lead.
But it was time for John Russell's favorite reliever Flammable Frankie Osoria to enter the game in the seventh and by the time Osoria left the game and recorded one out,the game was essentially over with the flammable one allowing four runs and the lead.
The Cards would add an insurance run in both the 8th and 9th to finish the contest.
Another winnable game that becomes a loss due to the bullpen and especially Osoria.
How much of this guy should we have to see????
Bullpen Notes
Sorry to hear about the passing of Bobby Murcer at 62.
Murcer was the star of the not so good Yankee teams of the late 60's and early 70's and is most remembered for his 1 for 1 trade to the Giants in 1975 for Bobby Bonds.
Look for a possible future post on the Murcer for Bonds trade as I love talking about the baseball for that time.
Wladimir Klitschko knocked out Tony Thompson in round 11 of a dull battle to retain his IBF Heavyweight belt.
The heavyweight division is just almost hard to watch.
Had Thompson thrown hard punches instead of being content to simply touch Klitschko,this could have been an interesting fight.
And finally in a dumb (yet expected) move,The New York Islanders fired
Ted Nolan as head coach.
Only a coach of Nolan's quality could have the less than talented team in the playoffs one year and contention the next and yet get fired.
The Islanders front office gets crazier by the second and dumber too.
Until tomorrow!
Photo Credits
Michaels:AP Photo-Gene Puskar
Murcer:Topps
Boxing:The SportingLife.com
No comments:
Post a Comment