Swept in DC

The Pittsburgh Pirates continued their recent woes with yet another loss in Washington 4-2.
Zach Duke was the losing pitcher (3-7) as the Buccos dropped their fifth decision in a row.
Pittsburgh begins its interleague slate tonight with the first of three against the Tigers in Detroit.
Ross Ohlendorf (0-3) for the Bucs,while I have read two differing reports on the Tigers starter,which appears to be either Justin Verlander or Jeremy Bonderman.

Pirate Hooks

1) Ryan Doumit returned to the lineup from his concussion-like symptoms and played first base,where he still had defensive difficulties.
Playing first likely is better than catching coming off an injury like that,but I might have put Doumit in right and Garrett Jones at first.

2) Evan Meek continued his excellent season by foiling a bases loaded threat in the sixth.
Meek will be this teams closer eventually,maybe as soon as the end of the season,if Octavio Dotel is moved...

3) Brendan Donnelly continues to be far from helpful in his appearances.
For the second game in a row,Donnelly turned a one run Washington lead into a two run lead late in the game.
Donnelly looks to me to be almost to the point of being cooked...

4) Zach Duke looked better than his last starts,but still is nibbling as Washington accumulated a high pitch count and Duke from the game.
Duke still is in the "make a perfect pitch" mode because half of his players (especially the left side of the infield) cannot be relied on defensively...

5) Steve Pearce will begin a rehab assignment at Indianapolis next week.
Here's hoping that the lineup looks like this upon his return-Pearce,Walker,Who cares and LaRoche with an outfield of Tabata,McCutchen and Jones and Doumit backstopping.
The odd man out is Lastings Milledge,but if I wanted a guy with zero homers in the everyday lineup,I'll take the guy that was just called up from AAA...

Photo Credit:Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press