Anemic offense=2 losses

The Pirates bats were made of less than stellar materials for 17 of 18 innings over the weekend and the one inning that they were able to do some damage meant little as they were too far behind to make a difference in dropping both games to the New York Mets.

On Saturday,Zach Duke spotted the Big Cesspool gang four runs after just two innings and left carrying the loss 7-4 (4-11) having allowed 6 runs over six innings.
Duke has not looked good over his last few starts and seems to have little movement on his pitches.
I would suspect that when Tom Gorzelanny returns from Indianapolis,he could be stepping into Duke's rotation spot.
If Jason Davis is able to continue his recent performance,the likelihood improves even more.
Pittsburgh did not reach the scoreboard until the sixth on an Andy LaRoche homer (4) that avoided a shutout until the late rally of three runs in the ninth.
Jack Wilson and Nate McLouth each hit RBI singles that were sandwiched around a wild pitch that scored the other run.

Johan Santana gave the Pirates evidence of his being the most dominant pitcher in baseball as he limited Pittsburgh to just 3 hits in a 4-0 Met win.
Jack Wilson led the Bucs with two of the three hits,while Andy LaRoche had the other.
LaRoche finished the game with more errors than hits as he butchered two grounders that fortunately didn't harm the Pirates.
Jeff Karstens (2-2) allowed four runs in six innings,while striking out 3 and walking one.
Karstens allowed three of his runs via the long ball as Brian Schneider hit a two run shot in the second and Carlos Beltran ended Karstens day on a sour note with a solo bomb in the sixth.

The Mets will attempt a royal flush at 12:35 before the Pirates hit the road for 5 games with two in St.Louis and three in Milwaukee.
Bernie Brewer,whoo hoo!!!

Pitching Matchup
New York:John Maine (10-7 3.97 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Paul Maholm:(8-7 3.69 ERA) 12:35

Bullpen Notes

In yesterdays game,Brandon Moss suffered an ankle sprain that looked more like an ankle break in the seventh inning.
It must have looked worse than it was as the Pirates said that Moss could return to the lineup in the Milwaukee series.
I was wondering who the callup would be if Moss was more severely injured,but it appears that will not be needed.

Here is Neal Huntington's words on not signing second rounder Tanner Scheppers.
Sorry about the tardiness,but was on the bottom of the inbox.

"We are disappointed that we were unable to reach an agreement with our second-round selection Tanner Scheppers, but we knew when we selected Tanner that we might not be in a position to sign him by the August 15 deadline. Despite the quality efforts of both parties, it became clear that Tanner's financial expectations were not in line with the risks presented by Tanner's current status as a pitcher in the early stages of a rehabilitation program following an injury to his throwing shoulder. Unfortunately, Tanner's rehabilitation program timeline changed dramatically from what his representative presented to us prior to the draft. Had Tanner been able to demonstrate that he was fully recovered from the injury he suffered towards the end of his 2008 season at Fresno State, we are confident that we could have found common ground on the economic terms of a contract. Selecting Tanner in the second round was a calculated risk from the outset. We knew when we selected him that, if he was able to show that he had recovered fully from his injury, we could have secured a first-round talent with our second-round selection. Because that did not happen, however, we will receive the 49th selection in next year's draft as compensation. We were willing to take the risk involved in selecting Tanner for two reasons. First, a club that is unable to sign its second-round selection now receives "same slot" compensation in the next draft. Second, we made the strategic decision to select several players with early round talent later in the draft regardless of their signability. As a result of this decision, we were able to sign two players, Robbie Grossman and Quinton Miller, each of whom received strong consideration with our second round selection."

I agree totally with both the decision and reasoning behind it.

And finally,a terrific article by our good friend,Wilbur Miller at OnlyBucs.org on the Credibility gap that the Coonelly/Huntington crew are starting to bridge a bit with their recent moves.
Great work as always by Wilbur.
Wilbur will also be returning here for a discussion on the Pirates recent moves.
I am still undecided on whether I will run it as an interview or as a roundtable style with myself and maybe an additional person included.

Until later when I FINALLY get the promised post for Harrisburg up!

Photo Credits
All Photos:Keith Srakocic-AP Photo