Sunday, August 2, 2009

Ho Hum

Not much to say; the Pirates got two homers, from unlikely sources Ronny Cedeno and Delwyn Young, but a seventh-inning fade by Paul Maholm brought on the fat lady as the Bucs went down 5-3 to the Nationals this afternoon in front of 21,894 fans.

Josh Willingham led Washington with a homer, double, and 3 RBI, driving in Ryan Zimmerman twice. How ineffective were the Pirate bats? Despite eight hits and three walks, they stranded just four runners and only one reached second all day - and that with two outs.

What was remarkable was the ineptitude of both teams' running games. Maholm picked off Nyjer Morgan and Josh Willingham, and the Bucs bettered them by having Andrew McCutchen and Lastings Milledge thrown out stealing, and Andy LaRoche picked off of first by catcher Wil Nieves on what was probably a blown call.

-- John Grupp of the Tribune Review has an interesting read on what the Pirates are looking for in pitchers. And if you think it's size, you're right.

-- Bill Madden of the New York Daily News must agree with Sean Burnett's "laughingstock" remark; he writes that the Pirate moves are a "disgrace."

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