Back to back

The struggling Pittsburgh Pirates managed to deliver a hit to the Atlanta Braves pennant hopes to grabbing the first two games of their three game series in Pittsburgh.
Brian Burres (3-3) allowed just one run and Neil Walker smacked a game winning homer (10) in leading a 3-1 win on Monday.
Joel Hanrahan earned his 4th save in the win.
Last night,James McDonald (3-5) dominated the Braves for seven innings and Pittsburgh cruised to a 5-0 win that sent the Braves tumbling from the top of the Eastern Division.
Delwyn Young's homer (7) and Ronny Cedeno's two run triple capped off the five run Pirate seventh to break up a scoreless game.

Zach Duke (7-12) will attempt to complete the sweep against Derek Lowe (11-12) tonight at 7:05

Pirate Hooks

1) Neil Walker's homer was a shot to deep center that landed in the landscaped area beyond center field.
Walker's hammer not only won the game,but seemed to break the Brave spirits as they came in town struggling.

2) Pittsburgh brought up some players for the roster,most notably Brandon Moss and Alex Presley.
Shortstop Pedro Ciriaco is a player that I am looking forward to seeing as well after bringing him in from Arizona.

3) Pittsburgh released Akinori Iwamura and Erik Kratz from Indianapolis.
The Iwamura experiment ended badly,but I wish Kratz could have been retained for AAA next season as he is a nice player to fall back on in case of injury.

4) James McDonald was almost untouchable in the win last night.
McDonald's 12 to 6 curveball might be the single best pitch of the Pirate starters.

5) Brad Lincoln will be pitching from the bullpen in an effort to limit his innings for the rest of the season.
Good idea on the Pirates,who will be relying on Lincoln in the rotation next season.

Hope to be working on Browns and Seahawks previews over the next few days and get them finished before Sunday.

Photo Credit-Gene Puskar-AP Photo