Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The NL's Homecoming Team

Hey, when your top six hitters go 13-for-23, it should be a good day at the plate. Unless, of course, the thirteen happens to be strikeouts. It's not a very lucky number in that case.

But that's what the Buccos did, and the result was Pittsburgh's seventh loss in a row, 5-3. At least Garrett Jones took the pressure off when he hit the franchise's 10,000 dinger - a solo shot, what else?

There's not much to say, other than the pitching, hitting, and fielding combined to be not quite enough again. And that's why they're 18-50 on the road, and 5-1/2 games out of fifth place in the Central Division, the position they held just a week or so ago.

The Pirates are back home Friday against the Cards, and they'll need some PNC magic to get back on the winning trail. The probable pitching matchups, compliments of MLB. com, are here.

-- Pine-Richland's Neil Walker got the start today at third. He went 0-for-4 with two swinging Ks, and was fed a pretty steady diet of fastballs. Walker made two nice plays in the field, but a throw after knocking down a ball pulled Garrett Jones off the sack, and eventually led to a pair of unearned runs.

-- The Bucs plan to keep Daniel McCutchen in the rotation. They'll use a six-man mix for the next couple of go-rounds, and then reassess the innings of Ross Ohlendorf and Kevin Hart. They'll likely drop them and add Virgil Vasquez for the last couple of weeks of the season.

No comments: