Saturday, July 26, 2008

John Van Bye-Bye

Jimmy Barthmaier (27.00), John Van Benschoten (10.48), Yoslan Herrera (9.75), Matty Morris (9.67), Tom Gorzelanny (6.57), Ian Snell (6.10), Phil Dumatrait (5.26) and Zach Duke (5.04). Those ERAs are why the Pirates traded for three pitchers today.

And JVB is why they lost tonight. When a team scores six times and can't get the tying run on deck, you know the pitching has let the game get away. In this case, it was out of the barn before the 27,000 PNC faithful could find their seats in a 9-6 loss.

He gave up seven runs in 1-2/3 innings, walking 4 and surrendering two three-run long balls. No matter how well the Pirates hit, it's just the same struggle, game after game.

The Pirates are supposed to add Jeff Karstens to the roster tomorrow, bringing it up to full strength. He's going to be thrown right into the rotation, although as of now Yoslan Herrera is Tuesday's starter.

We'd be very surprised if JVB sticks, although that begs the question of who to bring up, as Ross Ohlendorf is going to Indy to get a couple of starts under his belt. Still, we see no point in keeping JVB in Pittsburgh.

With Jake Peavy on the hill tomorrow, Paul Maholm will have his work cut out for him to keep the home stand from spinning into disaster.

2 comments:

WilliamJPellas said...

Van Benschoten is utterly brutal. Frankly, it's reached the point with him where it's downright embarrassing. Please, Pirates, do the right thing and pull the plug. It's like watching Apollo Creed get pummeled to death by Ivan Drago.

MICK!!! THROW IN THE TOWEL! THROW THE TOWEL, MICK!!!!

Ron Ieraci said...

Yah, Will, it's past time to move on with JVB. I thought he'd get DFA'ed. Still, his Pittsburgh days seem to be a memory now, we hope.