Cutch to All Stars,Alvarez to AAA,Pirates lose

On a day that saw a wrong corrected and a projected cornerstone assigned to AAA,the Pittsburgh Pirates received a less than strong outing by losing pitcher Kevin Correia (11-7) and dropped the game to the Chicago Cubs 6-3 at PNC Park.
The series and first half ends today as the Pirates throw Paul Maholm (5-9 3.08 ERA) at the Cubs and Ramon Ortiz (0-1 3.00 ERA) at 1:35

Pirate Hooks

1) The Pirates never seemed to be truly into this game as the Cubs scored runs off Kevin Correia in each of the four innings that he pitched.,but the stage was set for this with another bad send by third base coach Nick Leyva,who has made a habit of these things this season.
After Alex Presley led off with a double,Chase D'Arnaud singled to shallow right.
Instead of holding Presley at third,men on the corners,no one out,Leyva sends him home where a Kosuke Fukodome throw and an excellent plate block by Koyie Hill gunned him down.
Neil Walker then singled,which would have scored Presley and the next two batters were retired for a no run inning.
No one out,two on and your best two hitters about to bat and you send??
Sometimes a bit of discretion makes the difference...

2) The team placed the announcement on the scoreboard of Andrew McCutchen making the All Star team to a standing ovation and an tip of the hat from Cutch.
McCutchen deserved the honor,although I still think it is too bad that it took an injury and a belated media barrage to get him there.

3) Matt Diaz knocked in two runs in a little over half a game.Diaz was brought in the double switch to remove Kevin Correia from the mound.
Diaz has improved since a .300+ June,but the fact that the All Star break is here and he has yet to homer makes me still want a bigger bat for the everyday lineup...

4) Pedro Alvarez was activated off the disabled list and then assigned to AAA Indianapolis,which I am sure he is just thrilled with.
Alvarez was hitting just .208 with two homers before his injury.
This might be a move to keep him playing for a few days while the Bucs are on break,but it could not hurt his bat any to get the extra reps...

5) Give mop up man Chris LeRoux some credit for keeping things close last night when the Cubs threatened to bust the game wide open.
LeRoux kept the Cubs from further damage by keeping inherited runners from scoring and whiffed three in an inning and a third.

Photo Credit-AP