Thursday, March 18, 2010

Bucs Bow

OK, GW admits he was sneaking cyber peeks at the Bobby M five and their valiant effort to upend 'Nova in the opening round of March Madness on the work PC instead of checking out the Bucs. It ended up a good decision.

Both teams blew early leads and went down to defeat at the bitter end. For the Bucs, it was the same ol' same ol', playing just well enough to lose.

Carl Pavano went five innings for the Twins, and gave up a run on a hit, Jason Jaramillo's solo shot in the third. Ross Ohlendorf kept it close, surrendering a pair of runs in four innings on four hits with a couple of Ks.

The Pirates took the lead by playing some long ball with Pavano's replacement, Clay Condrey, when Delwyn Young and Jeff Clement went yard in the sixth to key a three spot. Someone better hose Young off; he's hotter right now than the Florida sunshine.

Chris Jakubauskas and Javier Lopez each pitched one scoreless inning, but the Bucco bats were done for the day. Jack Taschner served up a homer in the seventh, and Brian Bass yielded single runs in the eighth and ninth, including a walk-off RBI double.

So today's lesson for both Robert Morris and Pittsburgh: it isn't how you start the game; it's how you finish.

-- The Bucs take on the Red Sox tomorrow afternoon at McKechnie Field. The scheduled pitchers are Paul Maholm (4 innings or 60 pitches), Brendan Donnelly, Vinnie Chulk, Evan Meek, and Brian Burres.

-- As hot as Young is, Brandon Moss ain't. He wore the collar again today, and is now 0-for-22.

-- Octavio Dotel worked a minor league scrimmage and is scheduled to to make his first appearance in the Grapefruit League on Sunday against the Rays.

-- The Indians DFA'ed Brian Bixler. Guess the change of scenery didn't change much for BB.

-- Dave Cameron of Fangraphs did a piece on the Pirate's organizational strength. He's not impressed.

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