Pirates swat Nats

The Pittsburgh Pirates scored all eight of their runs off Livan Hernandez in the stretch between the third and fifth innings and held on for an 8-5 win over the visiting Washington Nationals.
Zach Duke improved to 7-12 despite just five innings of work (retired zero Nationals before being removed in the sixth) with the support of Ryan Doumit's 12th homer and three RBI from Garrett Jones.
Joel Hanrahan grabbed his third save with a scoreless ninth inning of work.
The middle game of the series features the Buccos Paul Maholm (7-13) against Washington's John Lannan (6-6) at 7:05.

Pirate Hooks

1) Garrett Jones narrowly missed a homer (settled for an RBI double) when his shot to left center hit off the top of the wall and bounced back into the field.
Unlucky break and one that for some reason that I have seen more often than normal this season for the Pirates and the opposition.

2) Zach Duke looked good for five innings with the exception of a gopher ball to Danny Espinosa.
In the sixth,he did what he usually does-start nibbling at corners and either walk batters or get ripped (without the booze).
Simply put,Duke has become a 5 to 6 inning pitcher and on this team and on most nights that will not get the job done.

3) John Bowker played in right field and got a few at bats.
If the Pirate do one thing over the course of this month,I hope that it is to give John Bowker a real opportunity to play.

4) Jeff Clement could be finished for the season as he returned from Indianapolis with a strained oblique muscle,
That would conclude a disappointing season for the lefty swinging Clement.

5) Mr.Nancy Lopez (Ray Knight) in the Washington booth replacing the axed Rob Dibble.
Now I didn't care for Dibble,But Mr.Lopez is dull and a shill.
A ramble that seemed to last forever about how the Nats had just one player to build a franchise around (Ryan Zimmerman) a year or so ago and now they have so many more stars on the team.
Lopez's list mentioned Nyjer Morgan,Ian Desmond and Roger Bernadina as these cornerstones of the Nationals.
Put aside that none of these guys are anything near that,Morgan's knockout percentage is higher than his batting average and Bernadina types can be found on AAA rosters throughout the land,although Desmond has hit far better than I foresaw after seeing him in minors and focus on his next statement.
"the person (s) to thank for all this improvement has to be-"
Now this is where either Jim Bowden's work on building the team or current GM Mike Rizzo gets put over as architects,but as Howard Cosell used to scream,BUT NO!.
All these "stars" and the great future can be attributed to the Lerners!
The owners!
Now that is called kissing ass and knowing where the bread needs to be buttered!