Another new winner

For the third consecutive day,the Pittsburgh Pirates used a pitcher that had not won a game this season to lead the team to victory.
Ross Ohlendorf (1-6) threw seven scoreless innings in following Brad Lincoln and Daniel McCutchen in gaining their initial wins this week as the Pirates shutout the visiting Phillies 2-0.
Both Pirates runs were scored on a weak dribbler by Andy LaRoche that forced Jamie Moyer to launch a quick and off target throw in order to try to end the inning by retiring LaRoche.
The resulting error allowed Andrew McCutchen and Ryan Doumit to score and both started and ended the scoring for the day.
Octavio Dotel snatched his 18th save after a scoreless ninth inning.
The Pirates are now guaranteed no worse than a split of the four game visit from their interstate rivals and will attempt to wrap the series up with a win today with Paul Maholm (5-6) vs Kyle Kendrick (4-3).

Pirate Hooks

1) Play of the game comes from Lastings Milledge,who's sliding catch in the sixth with two runners on kept the Phillies off the board.
Milledge is inconsistent with the glove to the point of maddening,but the catch was the difference in the game.

2) Ross Ohlendorf looked to be coming around with his solid outing last time in Oakland,but was even better last night.
Ohlendorf got ahead in the count (22 first pitch strikes) and managed to stay ahead,which hasn't always been the case this season.

3) Neil Walker may be able to return to action tonight from his concussion issues.
Walker's return would add a needed bat to the bench,which had been short handed since his injury.

4) Jamie Moyer looked pretty solid for the Phillies.Moyer is 47 years old and he could lose it at any time,but he has 267 wins for his career.
Let's give him another five this year to move him to 273 for his career and 14 for the season.
That means two more seasons like that gives him 300.
That equals Cooperstown,friends-like it or not.

5) Charlie Morton was optioned to Indianapolis to give him a few more starts there and attempt raise his confidence.Morton looks to me to be the poster child for a 4A pitcher.

6) Do I need to conclude every blog with a Keith Olbermannesque countdown of days that Steve Pearce is forced to stay with the I-Tribe?
This has gotten beyond ridiculous.

Photo Credit-Keith Srakocic-AP Photo

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