A night game followed by a lunchtime extravaganza saw the Pirates destroyed by the Cincinnati Reds combo of Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey.
Cueto fired a one hitter at the Bucco offense on Tuesday in a 9-0 Reds victory and Bailey was just as strong with a dominant victory today.
I wish I had more to credit the Pirate offense with,but the bottom line doesn't give me much to work with.
Pirates are off tomorrow before three day games in Chicago vs the Cubbies and a mini two day stop in Philly against the Phillies.
Pirate Hooks
1) Johnny Cueto was strong allowing just a scratch single to Ronny Cedeno last night that just nicked off Paul Janish's glove.
Cueto had no hitter style stuff,but the Pirates allowed Cueto to keep his pitch count low.
Cueto,a pitcher with huge potential,had only lasted into the eighth inning once in his career (against-you guessed it,the Pirates),but the Pirates allowed him to complete his first game on just 102 pitches....
2) The Cueto-Bailey back to back complete game shutout feat was the first time that the Reds had pulled that off in 21 years.
The pair of pitchers have had their struggles in their short MLB tenure,but have the arms to help the Reds turn the corner as contenders.
The numbers don't show it and the Pirates are an easy team to look good against,but it is not implausible for the Reds to be the team to beat in the division over the next years with a rotation of Cueto,Bailey,Mike Leake and Aldolis Chapman on the horizon along with Edison Volquez's return to health.
3) Charlie Morton lost to Cueto (1-6),but the majority of the runs came off the bullpen and his outing wasn't that awful as he allowed three runs in six innings,two of them in the first.
Morton still has tons of questions,but his last two starts have been showing some improvement over a bad start.
4) The attendance for these two games were just sad.
I know it rained all day yesterday and a damp day game today,but 9,027 last night and 20,000 today sounds passable on paper,but watching the game,I would bet that those numbers would have had actual fans in the park at a third of that.
5) As strong as Cueto was,Homer Bailey might have been more impressive.
90 pitches,4 hits and just one extra base hit,a double by Garrett Jones.
Bailey has the type of stuff that anchors a staff and seemed to be coming into his own with a strong September,but has struggled a bit early this season.
6) Tired of hearing about the Reds?
Well,not much to add when you score one run over three days against a less than powerful team in your home ballpark.
7) Akinori Iwamura.
Two hits (both singles) in the month of May and an average of .169 for the season.
Not a ton of production from the teams highest paid player.
8) Not that I have a solution for solving the problem for now.
Unless you think Bobby Crosby is the answer (I don't) or you want to keep Iwamura running out there (Not a fan of that,but little choice).
The best bet is to struggle through for a month or so and see if the Pirates then move Andy LaRoche to second and call Pedro Alvarez up from Indianapolis at third.
I am not a proponent of doing that now.
9) Look out for the weekend series in Chicago.
The Cubs fuming over being pounded by the Pirates in Pittsburgh,the Pirate bats as cold as the freight train on the Coors Light commercials and Tom Gorzelanny waiting to take on the team that treated him so shabbily.
This could be ugly,folks....
10) West Virginia Power in town tonight,lets hope for some passable weather,so I can get plenty of scouting in for the series!!!
Photo Credits
Cueto: AP Photo
Bailey:Unknown
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