Lincoln logs loss in debut

Brad Lincoln's stats look worse than he actually pitched,but he at least avoided the loss as the Pirates dropped a 7-5 duke to the Washington Nationals in Washington.
D.J Carrasco was the loser (1-2) after allowing the winning run in the seventh inning as Ryan Zimmerman smacked a liner off Carrasco's leg.
Tough break,but the standings aren't kept for tough breaks.
The series concludes tonight with Zach Duke (3-6) against the Nationals Livan Hernandez (4-3) ....

Pirate Hooks

1) I thought Brad Lincoln looked pretty strong for his first start.
Other than a mistake to Adam Dunn that Dunn pounded over the wall,Lincoln didn't make many others and other factors came into play as well.
The Dunn homer might not have happened had the home plate umpire called what I thought was strike three instead of calling it ball four on Ryan Zimmerman.
Had the pitch been called a strike,the inning would have ended...

2) The defense didn't help Lincoln much either as Lastings Milledge made a foolish decision in right that cost a run and Andrew McCutchen bobbled a ball off the wall to give extra bases.
Milledge's play was called a hit worsening Lincoln's numbers,but at best was a mental error.

3) The game wasn't well played by either team as Washington handed Pittsburgh runs by simply overthrowing the cutoff man as former Pirate Nyjer Morgan did twice.
Lastings Milledge brings his own disappointments to Pittsburgh,but it is amazing to me how many Nats fan love Morgan.
I don't see a huge amount of Washington games,but I did see the Giants series along with these and it seems that he makes the same poor decisions in the field and on the bases that he did as a Pirate.

4) Jose Tabata had two hits in his debut before leaving in the seventh with what was reported as a hamstring cramp.
Tabata has issues of this type in the past and it would be a shame to see them return just as he prepares to entrench himself with the Bucs.
Tabata may sit tonight out as a safety measure.

5) Brad Lincoln was a strong hitter in college at Houston and he earned two hits at the plate.
Lincoln might not be quite Micah Owings at the dish,but I wager he will be one of the top few hitting pitchers in the game very quickly...

6) Pittsburgh stole four bases on Wil Nieves and the Nationals pitchers.
Usually,its the opposition running wild on Ryan Doumit and the gang.
Nice to see something different!

7) Bob Carpenter and Rob Dibble must really hate Lastings Milledge.
They spent the better part of a inning talking about all his shortcomings.
I know Milledge had his issues in the Capital City,but they really whipped that horse last night.

8) Yesterday,I commented on how much I dislike Dibble and Wooden commented on Dibble being willing to criticize the home team.
Well,he was on the mark as Dibble nailed John Lannan for allowing the Pirates huge jumps on stolen base attempts and slammed Nyjer Morgan for his continual missing the cutoff.
I still am not a Dibble fan,but I always admire home team announcers that aren't afraid to comment negatively on the team that they cover.
Maybe Dibble can talk to the Pirate announcers (except for Bob Walk) about stripping the homer flag away and call it straight.

9) Quick note from the Strasburg game as I watched with Ryan and Battlin' Bob.
We wondered if between the Strasburg hype and Bryce Harper,is there a chance that the Nationals could move from a team that we (all three of us) kinda pull for unless they are playing our teams to a team to root against due to the local hype (Re-The Cal Ripken is the greatest player of all time fraud via the 80's &90's).
Answer-maybe.
The one thing that will help that is that the Nationals will grow over time with more players that we know from Hagerstown and that will (maybe) hold things down a little....

10) Tonight is the last night of real baseball as Friday starts two weeks of interleague misery.
This year feature visits from the White Sox and Indians (Count on Giant coverage that weekend) and road trips to Detroit (Friday),Texas and Oakland.
I am so excited.

Photo Credits:Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press