Adam Wainwright controlled the Pirates for five innings and then suddenly the Buccos managed to score four runs off the Cy Young contender between innings six and seven to gain a lead that they managed to survive a ninth inning that had loss for Pittsburgh written all over it for a 4-3 win at PNC Park.
Neil Walker knocked in three of the four runs in the rally that had to especially sting the Cards as they lost an opportunity to gain a game on the Reds,who were steamrolled in San Francisco.
Joel Hanrahan (3-1) was the winner with Evan Meek earning the save (2).
The Pirates conclude the series tonight with Daniel McCutchen (1-5) against Jake Westbrook (7-8).
Pirate Hooks
1) Inning nine was a nerve wracking one as the Cards scored a run to cut the lead to one basically caused by two fielding miscues that weren't called errors.
Evan Meek got in the way of a grounder that Ronny Cedeno would have at least gotten one out of,if not a double play,while Pedro Alvarez misplayed a Albert Pujols shot that could have been a twin killing to the end the game and instead loaded the bases with just one out.
2) Give Evan Meek credit for hanging in there after those plays (although one was his) and popping up both Matt Holliday and Felipe Lopez to end the game.
For all of the issues that I have with John Russell as a manager,his gradual handling of Meek in attempting to add responsibility slowly to the closer of the future has been both intelligent and well done....
3) Paul Maholm pitched well over six and two thirds as other than a first inning homer by Holliday,the Cards were pretty much shut down by the southpaw.
Maholm deserved a win,but avoided a loss with the rally.
4) I had been talking about Andrew McCutchen covering great ground and then just missing hauling the ball in lately,but McCutchen scored a run in just a manner as Jose Tabata's triple ricocheted off the glove of Jon Jay.
Once in a while,the breaks can go your way...
5) Hustle play of the evening goes to Ronny Cedeno,who rarely gets mentioned in this type of hook.
On the Pujols shot to Alvarez,the ball dribbled into shallow left and normally would have scored a run,but Cedeno was hustling over the ball with such speed that third base coach Jose Oquendo had to hold his runner at third,which had he scored would have tied the game.
Nice job by Cedeno.
6) Ross Ohlendorf is finished for the year,although he said he could return late in the year,but the risk isn't worth the reward for the Texan.
Ohlendorf has a strained lat muscle between his right (throwing ) shoulder that will not require surgery,but will need rest.
Good news for both Ohlendorf and the Pirates....
7) Jeff Karstens will be skipping his scheduled start tonight with "arm fatigue".
Daniel McCutchen in his place shouldn't make a difference one way or another against the Cardinals..
The Pirates had an unexpected fiasco on their hands as a leak somewhere in the pipeline released the Pirates financial statements for the last few years.
This type of stuff generally doesn't interest me as money matters aren't really my area of interest.
Being forced to watch CNBC might just be my version of the "football widow" that cannot stand sports,so keep that in mind.
Some interesting sniglets though ( and yes,I know the word "Sniglet" doesn't totally apply here!)
and I'll try to address a few.
The Pirates made a chip over five million dollars as profit last season.
Now,that is a lot for you and me,but for a professional sports team not really a huge chunk of change.
Basically that profit could be seen as paying Zach Duke for this season and two of the low wage young players on the team and that is about it.
The bigger question that I have is this-If that is all that the team made,can the team truly afford to compete as the salaries grow?
I would wager that they can,but they are going to have to consistently spend in the amateur draft and Latin markets,be creative as they have been in taking long shots in non-traditional baseball areas and most importantly-not afraid to cut and cull popular players when the time comes to do so.
As Billy Beane has been quoted as saying "small market teams hit the bottom with a thud not a bounce",meaning that teams that are short financially fall apart,it takes years to make a competitive run at things again.
Look at Beane's current squad as just such an example....
The other issue that stood out was the 20 million that was distributed to members of the Pirate ownership group in 2007/2008.
That is exactly the type of thing that makes the Pirates group look greedy and likely why they were so upset that this information hit the general public.
Bob Nutting claims that this payout was to help members of the group pay their taxes on the team and that this is not occurring every year.
I have far more of an issue with that occurring in 2007 than right now when you consider the money that the Pirates have put into the program now compared to then.
I am not a Bob Nutting fan and I still suspect that his family is getting more than they list somehow,but I cannot complain about the current spending and attempting to change the organization.
Sorry,if this comes back to baseball again.
I just hate finances!
Photo Credit-Matt Freed:Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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