Rangers grill Pirates

In the Pirates final interleague road swing of the season,the Pirates lost their opener in Texas to the Rangers 6-3 after a quick start that saw the Pirates score the first two runs of the game.
Ross Ohlendorf was the losing pitcher as he continued to seek his first win in dropping to 0-6.
The series continues tonight with Paul Maholm (4-5) against Dustin Nippert for the Rangers (2-3) at 8:05.

Pirate Hooks

1) This looks to be the last Pirate recap for a few days,at least as far as Hooks go.
I was just called into work for an overtime night,which is great for the wallet,but that means that I will miss the final two games of the Rangers series to go along with the first two against Oakland.
Look for some bonus Indian coverage,which appeared to be walking all over the Giants in our poll..

2) Akinori Iwamura accepted his demotion to Indianapolis and as a result will continue to receive his just under five million dollar salary.
Smart move by Iwamura,who will get nowhere near that type of coin on his next contract and by eating just a small bit of pride and playing eight or nine weeks at Indy makes money that he will never be able to make up.

3) Ross Ohlendorf retired the first ten batters than he faced before allowing a Michael Young homer.
This continued a trend for Ohlendorf,who seems to struggle seeing hitters multiple times.
Perhaps this could be a reason that the Yankees saw Ohlendorf's future as a reliever?

4) The play that might have changed the game was Ryan Doumit being waved home with one out on a Lastings Milledge double.
Doumit was out by the proverbial country mile despite a home plate collision with Matt Trainor.
Poor decision by third base coach Tony Beasley.

5) Zach Duke will throw on the side today,but if he is unable to throw,the Post-Gazette reports that he will go on the DL.
This doesn't seem super serious,but cannot help any trade value that Duke has before the deadline...

6) Bad news for Pirate prospect Tony Sanchez,who broke his jaw at the plate recently.
No final diagnosis for Sanchez or his season being over as of now.

7) No TV for the Indians on Saturday,so vote in the new poll to help make decisions on coverage...

8) Still working on the Pirate prospect series.This is taking more time as I have decided to remove the four players now in Pittsburgh.
Those were already finished,so in some ways it is starting from scratch.
However,it will be better because I will be able to factor in the first three months of the 2010 season.

Photo Credit-Cody Duty-AP Photo