Monday, May 24, 2010

Doumit dinger avoids sweep

Ryan Doumit's blast over the Clemente wall in the tenth inning (4) allowed the Pittsburgh Pirates to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves with a 3-2 win.
The homer allowed Octavio Dotel to improve to 2-0 after his scoreless tenth inning.Doumit knocked in one of the two earlier runs and the Pirates also recieved an RBI from Steve Pearce.
The Pirates start a seven game road trip tonight in Cincinnati with Brian Burres (2-1) against the Reds Aaron Harang (2-5).

Pirate Hooks

1) Second solid start in a row from Zach Duke with a seven inning effort that earned him a no decision.Duke scattered seven hits and struck out five,but most importantly didn't walk a batter.
Duke was in position for the win until Eric Hinske's homer off Evan Meek in the eighth inning.

2) Speaking of Hinske,he looks like a solid pickup for the Braves after playing mediocre hardball in Pittsburgh last season.
Hinske seemed unhappy from day one with the Bucs,which leads to the question of why he signed there in the first place.

3) Andy LaRoche sat the game and the Post-Gazette says that the Pirates have adopted a policy of sitting LaRoche on cold or damp days to deal with his balky back.
Not a good feeling to rely on a core player that has back problems at LaRoche's age.

4) Akinori Iwamura wanted to play in the game because it was being televised back to Japan.
Iwamura snapped an 0 for 34 slump with two hits on the afternoon.
Looks like the Pirates need more games sent to Japan!

5) Ryan Doumit has his problems staying healthy,but one never has to doubt his effort.
Doumit was thrown out at the plate by Melky Cabrera and was clearly going to be out,but instead of taking the easy out,Doumit smashed into David Ross in an attempt to jar the ball loose.
Ross held onto the ball,but that is why Doumit is a favorite of mine,despite his flaws.

Back later with a cleaning of the inbox,which includes saying goodbye to a few that has recently passed away.

Photo Credits:Peter Diana-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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