A rally from the Pirates?

Going into the ninth inning,it looked like a questionable decision and a unreliable bullpen was going to hand the Pirates a loss after a surprisingly effective start from Jeff Karstens.
But,the Pirates smacked future hall of famer Trevor Hoffman for five runs in the stanza and walked away with a 7-3 win over the Brewers and snapped a seven game losing streak.
Ryan Doumit's grand slam (2) put the game away after Ronny Cedeno led the inning off with a game tying homer (2).Jeff Clement also homered (3) for Pittsburgh.
Brendan Donnelley moved to 2-0 with the win.
The series concludes this afternoon with Paul Maholm against Chris Narveson.

Pirate Hooks

1) Jeff Karstens pitched very well and was in for a win before a game tying homer from George Kotteras in the seventh.
It is easy to say that Karstens was kept in too long after the fact,but sometimes manager try to stretch the elastic a bit with weaker pitchers that are pitching well.
I understand the bullpen is tired and ineffective,but Karstens only has so much to give....

2) The Pirates designated John Raynor for assignment before the game to make room for Karstens.
Raynor will have to pass through waivers and if he does,he will then have to be offered to the Marlins for 25,000 dollars.
Neal Huntington will likely attempt to make a trade to keep Raynor such as he did with Tampa to keep Evan Meek in 2008.
If Raynor stays in the organization,he will likely be headed to Indianapolis...

3) The eighth inning homer from Prince Fielder off Jorge Lopez was tattooed to dead center and if there would not have been the structure that gives the hitters the solid background to see the ball against,I would have no idea how far it could have went.
The sound that it made hitting it was thundering.

4) Four more hits from Andy LaRoche as he continues his tear.
LaRoche is now up to .400 on the year,albeit with little power and run production (1 HR and 3 RBI).
LaRoche even looks different at the plate as he seems to be much more akin to taking the ball the other way and using the entire field more than in past spots.

5) An underrated part of the victory was a great catch by Lasting Milledge in the eighth to keep the Brewers off the board with more runs.
The rap on Milledge was weak defense and he still might not the best defender,but it hasn't been due to lack of effort...

6) The win snapped the 22 game losing streak in Milwaukee for the Pirates after being outscored 53-4 in their first four games against the Brewers this season-now that is Ugly!!!