Pirates just miss Giant sweep

The Pittsburgh Pirates missed a three game sweep of the San Francisco Giants by one run and one inning as the Giants scored all four runs in the sixth inning and held onto a 4-3 win.
The Pirates had won the first two games in the series by one run and two runs and now host the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park starting tonight.
Ross Ohlendorf for the Bucs and Mike Burns for Milwaukee.

Pirate Hooks-Long version

1) Plenty of Hooks since we are covering the entire series in one post.
Watching the Giants struggle to hit the Pirate pitching and looking at both their record and pitching,one would think the Giants would explore dealing a young pitcher for a young everyday bat to give them a chance at the wild card.

2) Tim Lincecum is untouchable and Matt Cain might be too,but with Jonathan Sanchez of recent no-hit fame on staff and two of the best arms in the minors (Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson) close to being ready,the time to make a deal from strength could be now.

3) Right after we questioned Garrett Jones,he drilled two solo homers for the only Pittsburgh runs of the game in the 14 inning,2-1 win in the opener.
If that is all it takes,I can be more critical!!!

4) Except for Zach Duke's sixth inning yesterday,the Pirate starters controlled Giant bats in the series.
Paul Maholm battled Tim Lincecum to a standstill and Charlie Morton continued his one good start,one bad start routine with a 2-0 win.

5) I really like Morton's arm and you can see that he has the stuff to be successful,but when he is bad he seems have an issue similar to Ian Snell-emotional control.

6) Speaking of Snell,he continues to be dominant at Indianapolis,but a war of words with Neal Huntington continues.
This helps neither Snell (he continues to have other teams wonder about his maturity) nor the Pirates as arguing in the media is never an avenue that impresses anyone....

7) The extension offers to Freddy Sanchez and Jack Wilson were rejected by the players and then pulled from the table.
Looks like a PR move so that the Pirates can say to the fans before trading them -"see,we tried"!

8) Neal Huntington was telling the truth about Jack Wilson with this statement "In Jack's case, he has played terrific defense for us, maybe the best of his career. But this is the fourth of five years that he's been a below-average league bat for his position. So, we've got to be realistic in our evaluations."

However,sometimes (as I have been told many times) it may be true-But you didn't have to tell everybody!

9) From what I saw this weekend,Sanchez would be a good fit in San Francisco,but I doubt the Giants would be interested in Wilson with Edgar Renteria already at short for them....

10) Nice to see Donald Veal not only pitch,but do so in a one run game.
Veal retired Travis Ishikawa and was then removed for Joel Hanrahan.
Considering Veal's inexperience,this was a nice spot to put him in an important situation yet one that he had a chance to succeed in....