The best pitcher you don't know.

There are names that are far bigger than Josh Johnson in the National League,but in performance he does not have to take a backseat to any of them and pitching in fan lacking Miami,Johnson does not always enter the discussion when elite pitchers are discussed.
The Pirates ran into Johnson last night and came out worse for the encounter as Johnson allowed just two hits over seven innings in a 6-0 Marlins win.
Only a Garrett Jones single dented Johnson from the Pirates starters as John Bowker's pinch hit single was the other hit.
Paul Maholm allowed all six runs in less than four innings to fall to 0-3 and inflate his ERA as well.
The series continues tonight at 7:10.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh: Charlie Morton (2-0 1.64 ERA) at Florida:Ricky Nolasco (1-0 4.05 ERA) 7:10

Pirate Hooks

1) Josh Johnson was just overwhelming last night.
The Pirates had no chance against Johnson,his strike three curve on Andrew McCutchen that completed a three K inning was so devastating that I had the same chance of hitting it as McCutchen-which is to say-Zero.
Josh Johnson is what Pirates fans hope that Jameson Tallion becomes-A hard throwing,top of the rotation starter that can take the ball against any team and any opposing starter and give you confidence that you are going to win.

2) Nice crowd in Florida last night.
Looked to be about 4-5,000 and by ratio when you consider the size of whatever it is the stadium there is named this week,the crowd looked to be pretty similar to those 400 fan nights for the Hagerstown Suns at the Muni.
How the team managed to get a new stadium out of the area when you consider the low attendance and lack of places to threaten to move to is one of the great unanswered questions of our time.
Maybe the Suns should hire that person/persons as a consultant for a replacement of the Muni!?

3) Paul Maholm was not sharp last night at all.
The one strength that the lefty has is that he usually is around the plate and three walks in less than four innings is not the norm.
The killer was Maholm walking in a run by walking Hanley Ramirez,who is not exactly known for his plate patience.

4) Maholm did give up two runs before the fourth on a two on,two out single to Josh Johnson off a curve that he later admitted he should not have thrown.
Hindsight is always 20/20,but facing the pitcher,I would rather try to get a fastball by them more often than not.

5) It was mop up action,but give Mike Crotta,Daniel McCutchen and Joe Beimel credit for not allowing this to get really ugly as they allowed just two hits and zero runs after Maholm left the game.
The problem was that the Crotta hit was a blooper that scored two runs credited to Maholm and basically blew the game wide open....

Photo Credit-AP Photo