Gopher balls shock Bucs 7-6!

Things looked good in Pittsburgh for quite a while as Ryan Doumit had powered two homers (6 and 7) and Paul Maholm was one bad pitch away from a shutout.
But just when you think things are good,Lucy jerks the football away and in the 7th inning,Maholm allowed three solo homers in 4 batters to tie the game at 4.
That set the stage for Lastings Milledge to blast a two run shot off Matt Capps (0-1) with two out in the Washington ninth to give the Nationals the 7-6 win.
The blown save for Capps was the first in 16 opportunities and comes in his 3rd outing in 3 days.
One could make an argument that maybe someone else (Marte?) could have been given this one,but perhaps John Russell figured that this one just could not get away and he wanted his best guy even if it meant short rest.
Pittsburgh had taken a one run deficit and turned it into a one run lead in the bottom of the eighth with two runs off Washington relievers.
Xavier Nady's single scored Jason Bay and Doug Mientkiewicz hit a sac fly to score the tagging Ryan Doumit from third to put the Bucs in a position of needing just three outs for the win.
A great night for Doumit-4 for 4, 2 homers,2 doubles and 3 RBI.
If he can just keep healthy,the Bucs have the rarity of all rarities-a power hitting catcher that hits for average as well.
The downer of the game besides the loss was two homers for Washington's Ronnie Belliard.
I cannot stand him from his days in Cleveland!
The series continues tonight at 7.

I missed posting on the previous days 5-3 win over the Diamondbacks to salvage a split of the four game set.
Zach Duke pitched well (6 innings 2 runs) improved to 4-4 and if he would not have to had to face Mark Reynolds,his numbers would have been even better!
Matt Capps earned save 15 and Bucco RBI went to Luis Rivas,who had two and one each to Jose Bautista,Xavier Nady and Jack Wilson.
The biggest news of a rather dull game was the dustup between Randy Johnson and Doug Mientkiewicz.
There was not much to it and truth be told,in baseball fights there usually isn't much action,but a little flareup is always fun.
Both "combatants" were more than ready to throw the mitts,but again as is usually the case-AFTER the game,in the clubhouse talking to the press.

Pitching Matchup
Washington:John Lannan (4-6 3.47 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Ian Snell (2-6 5.65 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Author Eliot Asinof died yesterday at the age of 88 in Hudson NY.
Asinof was the author of the seminal work on the 1919 "Black Sox" scandal with his 1963 book Eight Men Out and was an advisor on the 1988 film of the same name.
The article on his passing mentions his other books and his being blacklisted by the McCarthyites "red hunt" in the 1950's.
Eight Men Out will always be the top book on the 1919 World Series as when the idea came to Asinof to write the book,some of the person involved were still alive and he was able glean information that otherwise would have been lost to the ages.
I could not give a higher recommendation to anyone interested in that part of baseball history.

Long time Vancouver Canuck Trevor Linden retired today after 19 NHL seasons,16 of those were spent on the Pacific Coast with the Canucks.
Linden was never a superstar,but a solid player and a popular player in Vancouver.

My favorite Aunt,Becky sends us this note on the approval of some of the funds needed to renovate Cleveland's League Park.
League Park was the initial home of the Wahoos and has become run down with only a portion of the outfield wall and ticket booth still standing.
Here is an article from last season from the Indians themselves talking about the future of the historic field and our post on the renovation from almost one year to the day!
I have always wanted to go there and snap some pictures,but frankly everything that I have heard about the neighborhood deterred me a bit.
I would like to have a rental to drive away from the area in and the reports that I read indicates that as a definite maybe!!

League Park also has a new group of defenders as the League Park Society was created last month.
This is a tremendous site that gives you all the information that you could want on the Park and why such an important part of both Cleveland and the Indians history needs to be preserved and rehabilitated.
The above pic is part of the eroded grandstand from the LPS site and the site has several other pictures from the area.

I get asked sometimes,since I have such a passion for the Cleveland Indians,why they get short shrift here compared to the Pirates.
The simple answer is this,I like the National League game better and I find myself watching more Pirate games than the Tribe versions.

Tonight will be the last Hagerstown Suns home game of the first half,so I will be there and attempting to finish off a few of the Lakewood Blue Claws for the collection as well.
Plus it is another chance to see the Phillies terrific young prospect Dominic Brown,who I was very impressed with in Lakewood's earlier visit.

Until next time
Photo Credits
Doumit and Shouting Match:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
League Park Grandstand:Russ Haslage-League Park Society

Pirates drop D-Backs 6-4

The current game is going on right now,but I am saving that for later watching,so here is a quick post on the Sunday 6-4 Pittsburgh win.
The Pirates did most of their damage in the 4th inning as they plated 5 of their six runs then and that was enough to hold the visitors at bay for the win.
Pittsburgh jumped to a fast start in the frame as back to back doubles from Adam LaRoche and Jose Bautista were then followed up by a Raul Chavez single to produce two quick runs and give the Bucs the lead.
Jack Wilson's later sac fly would score Chavez and Jason Bay smacked a two run double to finish the Pittsburgh offense for the inning.
Wilson would finish the Pirate scoring with a single in the fifth that scored Chavez for the second time in the contest and only Mark Reynolds two shots into the stands allowed Arizona to keep the game close.
Phil Dumatrait pitched pretty well in evening his record at 3-3 in his 5 and two third innings of pitching.
The key with Dumatrait seems to be that he either gets tired around the 6th inning or that the opposition seems to get a read on him as that seems to be when he starts to be hittable.
As long as John Russell and company realize that and keeps the pen ready to go around that time,they should continue to be able to get decent use from the lefty tosser.
I am still concerned that he is walking too many-two in the game,but for now he is getting the job done in his chances.
Matt Capps pitched the ninth for save number 14.

Bullpen Notes

Since the game has already started or finished by this writing,I will not bother with a pitching matchup.

The Pirates signed three draft picks today,most notably 11th round outfielder Dave Rubinstein of Appalachian State,who should prove to be quite popular when he gets to Hickory.
Appalachian State is very close to the Crawdads and I was surprised when I visited there last season that they were the favorite college team,not the bigger name schools from the ACC.

I was able to watch the Saturday fights from Showtime and will now eat my serving of crow after Sergio Mora's upset win over Vernon Forrest.
I scored the fight even at 114,but could not quibble either way and no matter the result Mora fought far better than I ever expected.
In the other battle,Paul Williams stormed from the corner and avenged his close decision loss to Carlos Quintana with a first round blitz that left Quintana face down on the mat.
That is how you gain revenge and regain lost marketability!

And from the we can only hope department-an interesting bunch of thoughts on the Oil speculation bubble bursting.
As the Beach Boys sang-"Wouldn't it be nice".

Until later or tomorrow

Photo Credits
McLouth:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Boxing:George Ruhe-AP Photo

Snakebitten

At first,it looked like another in a line of bad outings by Tom Gorzelanny.
3 Arizona runs in the first inning and 2 walks appeared to put the Pirates in a tough ditch to dig out of considering that they were facing Dan Haren.
But Gorzelanny settled in and would not allow another run and that allowed the Buccos to battle back to tie the game at 3 and set the stage for a thrilling ending.
Sadly,the thrilling ending went the visitors way as Chris Snyder led off the Arizona 9th by depositing a John Grabow pitch (4-2) over the left field wall and leading Arizona to a 4-3 win.
The Pirates scored single runs in three consecutive innings to even the game using a 3rd inning double by Nate McLouth and solo homers by Jason Bay (14) and McLouth (14).
A very good outing by Gorzelanny considering his initial struggles and finished with a good seven inning effort allowing the three first inning runs on just 5 hits,but only struck out one Diamondback,which raises questions to me when you consider the rattlers strike out the most of any team in the league.
A heartbreaking loss for sure after battling back against one of the leagues best pitchers.
Game 3 is today with Battlin Bob's guy Phil Dumatrait on the hill.

Pitching Matchup
Arizona:Doug Davis (2-2 3.90 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Phil Dumatrait (2-3 3.47 ERA)

Great time was had last night at the Muni as Dan Lyons smacked a walkoff homer to give the Hagerstown Suns a 5-4 win over the Lake County Captains on Elizabeth Schulze bobblehead night.
The crowd was bigger than I expected,but it seems that it was more for the fireworks than the giveaway to me.
Battlin Bob had a great time looking for his new "pal" in the Suns front office and fellow blogger Mike was there with us as well swapping pol' talk along with the usual diamond talk.

Bullpen Notes

Kelly Pavlik retained his WBC Middleweight title with 3rd round TKO of Wales' Gary Lockett when Lockett's corner rushed the ring to toss in the towel to avoid their fighter further beating at the hands of Pavlik.
Pavlik dropped the Welshman twice in the second round and seemed to be on his way to more before the corner stopped the bout.

I have avoided the two title bouts from Showtime from Saturday,so look for my thoughts on those after I watch them tonight.

Our Belmont longshot Denis of Cork rallied to pick up second money in the Belmont where Big Brown failed in his effort for the Triple Crown.
Denis of Cork would have paid you 5.80 to place or 4.10 to show for every two dollar bet that would have been placed on him.
And as far as Big Brown goes-the horse should have never ran.
He was not healthy,but I can understand why they tried-you only get one shot at the Triple Crown.

Welcome to a new addition to our links page.
Sandlot Swashbucklers concentrates on the Indianapolis Indians and their boss Nancy Zinni takes her own terrific pictures of the I-Tribe.
Check it out on the links page.

And finally,here is the Pirates reasoning on the release of Brian Rogers from Kyle Stark,the Pirates director of player development.
"Ultimately, we did not see him as major league depth and wanted to give some other guys those innings."
To me,considering Rogers' numbers,something still is not quite right.

Until tomorrow.....

Photo Credits
McLouth:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Pavlik:David Gard-AP Photo

Webb spins Arizona over Pirates

Ian Snell looked to be getting closer to rounding into form against Arizona,but as solid as his five innings was,he was no match for Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks escaped with a 3-1 win in Game 1 of the four game set.
Webb did not allow a hit until the fifth and allowed just one run and that could have arguably been zero as I thought Freddy Sanchez could have been called out at home as he scored on a Jason Bay single in the sixth.
Snell was the loser in falling to 2-6 and lasted just five innings,but there were signs that a possible turnaround is coming as he allowed just 2 runs (and only one earned) and struck out 9 Diamondbacks over the five inning term.
For the first time in quite a while,Snell seemed to have a little bit of confidence in his control,even though he still walked three.
I was encouraged by Tyler Yates and his scoreless two innings as Yates has been struggling lately.
The anemic offense only scratched out six hits for the evening.
The series continues tonight at seven.

Pitching Matchup
Arizona:Dan Haren (6-4, 3.40) at Pittsburgh:Tom Gorzelanny (4-5, 7.22) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Jim McKay died today at home at the age of 87.
McKay was considered the face of Olympic television coverage for years at ABC and of course was most famous for his classic coverage of the 1972 Munich games when terrorists took members of the Israeli team hostage and eventually all were killed.
McKay also is famous to anyone that has heard the Wide World of Sports theme and introduction as he is the narrator of the intro and long time host of the show as well.
McKay was also a key member of ABC's Horse Racing coverage and perhaps the moment that he is most famous for was an intro that he did one year for the Pimlico Special.
McKay looked into the camera and went into promo mode and said "Hi,I'm Jack McGoolahee and did the intro spiel".
I might have understood that if that was his real name,but his real name was Jim McManus and that makes me laugh and befuddles me at the same time!

Floyd Mayweather retires and claims he has achieved his goal of being the greatest fighter of all time.
Neither is true.
Nothing gets attention like announcing your retirement and his track record leaves him far short of the latter.
Mayweather's career over the long term (assuming this is for real) will be looked at in the same vein as Roy Jones-a fighter with huge skills,that was not that exciting to watch,ducked the elite competition (Miguel Cotto is the true reason that this is going on) and was simply not that well liked-despite what each would say publicly.
The thing that neither of the two never seemed to figure out is this-you can be the best even if you lose one or two- if you always fight the best and duck no man.

WBC Middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik defends his strap tonight in Atlantic City against Great Britain's Gary Lockett.
Lockett is a mandatory defense for Pavlik,but is not expected to be too much trouble.
The bout is on HBO.

HBO's rivals over at Showtime counter with a rematch with Welterweight implications as Carlos
Quintana and Paul Williams battle in a rematch of their bout of a few months back.
Quintana took a close decision in that matchup.
The other fight on that card is Vernon Forrest putting his WBC Jr Middleweight belt on the line against "Contender" winner Sergio Mora.
Some bias here first-I hate the Contender show.
The fighters that they use are not world class fighters and I hate the fact that the fights are only 5 rounds.
Mora could not break a bubble with his punches and is overmatched here.

Our predictions
Pavlik KO 5 Lockett
Williams close decision over Quintana
Forrest KO 7 Mora.

Want a sleeper at a big price to stop Big Brown's Triple Crown bid today?
Take a flyer on Denis of Cork.

Until tomorrow when I can breathlessly report on Elizabeth Schulze bobblehead night!

Photo Credits
Sanchez:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Pavlik:AP Photo

Bay's triple makes the difference

It looked like a high-scoring night after 2 innings as each team had scored three runs and neither Paul Maholm nor Brandon Backe have ever reminded anyone of Bob Veale or Larry Dierker.

But, both starters and their bullpens settled down and only 1 more runner crossed the plate for the
remainder of the game -Nate McLouth and that turned out to be the difference in a 4-3 Pittsburgh win.

After Houston scratched out an unearned run in the first off Paul Maholm, Jason Michaels gave the Bucs a 3-1 lead with his second homer of the year.

For those of you wondering why Michaels was listed as hitting his second homer last week and his total stayed at two, Last time I counted his only homer in Cleveland, and from here on, I will only be counting his Pittsburgh homers.

Nate McLouth beat out a "swinging bunt" with two out in the fifth to set the stage for the game-winning triple for Bay on a ball that could have been caught by Jose Cruz Jr, but he either dropped it shying away from the wall or the ball popped out after brushing the wall.

Either way, the game was essentially over from then on as Maholm cruised through the Houston lineup from then on in moving his record to 4-5.

The Mississippi State product ended up with eight strong innings allowing 3 runs (2 earned) scattering eight hits and striking 1 Astro out.
Matt Capps pitched the ninth for save number 13.
The Arizona Diamondbacks hit town for their only visit of the year for a 4 game set tonight.
Good luck tonight in facing the best pitcher in the league.

Pitching Matchup
Arizona: Brandon Webb (10-2 2.69 ERA) at Pittsburgh: Ian Snell (2-5 5.94 ERA) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

I loved the Pirates' first day of the draft.
Tanner Scheppers was a top-ten talent that fell due to injury concerns, but if healthy was the best pitcher in this draft.
Without the injury concerns, he goes at worst 12th and the Bucs add him at 44?

Great pick.
A gamble?

Sure, but those are the types of gambles that need to be made.
I also liked Jordy Mercer of Oklahoma State in the 3rd and especially Texas outfielder Robbie Grossman in the 6th-IF they can get him signed.
The Pirates also added lefty Justin Wilson, a teammate of Schepper's at Fresno State in an effort to be Fresno East!

More on the draft over the next few days and look for our 2nd annual shadow draft in a few weeks.

After last night's win over the Astros, the Pirates activated Ryan Doumit and demoted Ronny Paulino to Indianapolis.
This could salvage the career of "the jogger" by showing him what it takes to be a big leaguer or ruin it if his attitude is wrong.

To make room for Paulino, the Pirates released Brian Rogers from the I-Tribe.
Rogers was acquired from Detroit for Sean Casey in 2005 and made two brief and less-than-memorable stints in Pittsburgh.

The numbers for Rogers look nice, so unless his soft-tossing stuff was the reason for his release -I can only think off-the-field concerns for the move.
Please do not get the idea that this upsets me as AAA has loads of guys similar to Brian Rogers.

Ryan sends us this note on CBC battling over fees to continue using the popular Hockey Night in Canada theme.
This will get done CBC is the big loser in such a scenario, so I would not fret over it yet.

Photo Credits
Michaels:Gene Puskar-AP Photo
Scheppers:Juan Villa-The Collegian

Pirates pick Pedro Alvarez

The Pittsburgh Pirates attempted to show their fans that there truly is a new brand of front office in town as the Pirates took the best player available in the MLB draft by selecting Vanderbilt third baseman Pedro Alvarez with the second overall pick.
Alvarez was rated by many as the best player in the draft and was easily rated as the top college position player overall.
Tampa passed on Alvarez with the top overall pick due to having Evan Longoria at third base and having recently signed him to a long term extension.
The 21 year old left swinger missed time this year due to a broken hamate bone in his right hand,but returned to finish the season for the Commodores hitting .317 with 9 homers and 30 RBI in his 40 games of action.
Alvarez has been downgraded by some scouts for his defense and could eventually be moved to the right side of the diamond as a first baseman.
Pedro was drafted by Boston in the 14th round in 2004 and rejected a one million dollar signing bonus from the BoSox to attend the Nashville school.
Now come the hard part-getting him signed quickly and when you deal with Scott Boras,that is hardly a given.
Boras did sign Matt Wieters last season to Baltimore,but not until the signing deadline in August and that resulted in Wieters not making his pro debut until this season.
Here is hoping for another show of change and the Pirates sign Alvarez in a timely fashion and get him to State College or Hickory for some at bats before the season ends.
More in tomorrow's edition on the Pirates second round pick and Cleveland's first rounder.

UPDATE:Cleveland selected third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall of Pitt (NC) JUCO with their first round pick.
Chisenhall is a talented player that arrives with baggage as he was kicked off South Carolina's squad after being arrested on burglary and grand larceny issues.
Chisenhall was the Pirates 12th round pick in 2006,but chose to attend South Carolina instead and was one of a rare breed-a Dave Littlefield/Ed Creech pick that had a high ceiling.

Photo Credit-AP File

Raul Chavez?

On the same day that the rumors began to fly that veteran backstop Raul Chavez might get the nod to stay in Pittsburgh over Ronny Paulino when Ryan Doumit returns to the lineup,Chavez may have cemented his job with a 3 RBI night in the Pirates 5-2 win over the Astros.
Chavez broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth with a two run single that scored Adam LaRoche and Xavier Nady and sealed the win and added an insurance run in the 8th with a sacrifice fly to Houston centerfielder Michael Bourn that scored LaRoche.
The remaining Pirate RBI's went to LaRoche (4th inning single) and Nate McLouth (5th inning single).
Zach Duke improved to 3-4 on the campaign with an excellent outing that saw him last for 7 and two third innings and allow just two runs on seven hits.
Duke struck out two and walked the same amount for the game.
Damaso Marte was brought into the game to finish the 8th and Matt Capps whiffed 2 Astros in the ninth to earn his 12th save of the year with a flawless inning.
The series rubber match is tonight at 7.

Pitching Matchup
Houston:Brandon Backe (4-6, 4.54 ERA) at Pittsburgh:Paul Maholm (3-5, 4.74) 7:05

Bullpen Notes

Roy Oswalt does not seem to have the same stuff as in the past.
Oswalt picked up the loss in the second game of the series and it seems like his velocity is down a bit.
Just that alone explains some about his troubles this season.

The draft is today and it seems like Pedro Alvarez is the Pirates guy.
I still think that Pittsburgh would like to see Tampa take Tim Beckham to avoid a difficult choice,but Tampa may select Buster Posey instead.
Alvarez gives the Pirates front office a chance to show the fans that there really is a plan to win and not just make money.

The top recruit of the incoming class for Maryland's basketball program has asked for his release to transfer.
Gus Gilchrist asked and was given permission to transfer in another sign of the struggles of the Terrapin program over the last few seasons.
The 6'9 Gilchrist was expected to plug the hole left by James Gist next season and comes on the heels of another recruit JUCO transfer Tyree Evans.

And finally a note on Elizabeth Schulze bobblehead night on Saturday from the Hagerstown Suns.
I think this is a different scenario than with Nora Roberts bobblehead last season.
Roberts put backsides into seats that would not be there on any other occasion.
Will Schulze (the conductor of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra) do that?
I doubt it.
And that my friends (and other readers) is why you have promotions in the first place.

Maybe back later with a quick thought on the Pirates and (maybe) Indians first round picks in the draft.

Photo Credit
Duke:Don Wright-AP Photo