Thursday, June 12, 2008

Doumit blasts another as Bucs win 7-5

Ryan Doumit hammered another homer in the first inning to stake Pittsburgh to an early lead and the Pirates held on for a 7-5 win over the Washington Nationals on a getaway day at PNC Park.
The blast was the ninth for the lefty swinging catcher and his fourth in the three game set against Washington.
Tom Gorzelanny earned the win and leveled his season record at 5-5,despite his velocity still seeming to be lower than it should.
Gorzelanny allowed 3 runs on 6 hits,struck out 6 and walked three in his term and walked himself in the Pirate 2nd,which resulted in an RBI for the pitcher.
Nate McLouth then added a 4th Bucco run with a sacrifice fly that scored Chris Gomez to result in a 4-0 Pittsburgh lead.
Washington scored a single run in the third,but that was washed away in the Pittsburgh fifth when Jason Bay scored Gorzelanny on a sac fly and Doumit added a third RBI to his total when his single plated Nate McLouth.
Gorzelanny was chased from the game in the 6th as he allowed 2 runs and Sean Burnett allowed a run in his first appearance in what seems to be forever.
The play that may saved the Bucs was an Elijah Dukes single,which scored a run and moved Christian Guzman to third,that Dukes attempted to stretch into a double and was thrown out by a mile by Xavier Nady from right.
If Dukes stays at first or is safe at second,who knows what would have happened,but instead the Pirates held onto a 6-4 lead and each team scored single runs in the eighth for the final score.
Jason Michaels pinch hit double resulted in the final Buc run.
Damaso Marte pitched the ninth in the place of the overworked Matt Capps to click up his first save of the season.
The Pirates travel to Baltimore tomorrow for a three game weekend series against the Orioles in the beginning of the interleague slate.

Pitching Matchup
Pittsburgh:Phil Dumatrait (3-3 3.44 ERA) at Baltimore:Brian Burres (4-5 4.96 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Now that the Nationals series is over,only one more opposing team announcers to tolerate.
The downside is that is this weekend vs Baltimore.
The Nationals announcers are quite good as I have always liked Bob Carpenter and Don Sutton is good in the color chair,but for the Pirate series Sutton was not around and was replaced by Mr.Nancy Lopez (Ray Knight) and his work is not favorable in my opinion.
The Orioles commentators are far worse as they have four of the most annoying around with "the screamer" Gary Thorne,smarmy Buck Martinez,catatonic Jim Palmer and funnyman (in his own mind) Jim Hunter.
It looks like a LONG weekend unless I use the mute button.

The Cleveland Browns released center LeCharles Bentley after two practice sessions.
Bentley asked for his release as he believed he would have a better chance to play elsewhere after his two seasons off after his devastating knee injury in 2006 training camp.
From the way that the press release read it looks to be a amiable parting from both sides.

Here is another article on the best play by play man in Hockey-the Devils own Mike"Doc" Emrick.
Last week Emrick threw out the first pitch before a game at PNC Park and the diehard Pirate fan talks about both hockey and his Pirates obsession in the review.

Until tomorrow when I have no idea what I will write about,so likely will be a theme post of some kind.

Photo Credit

Doumit:Gene Puskar-AP Photo

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