Hey, can't ask for a better start. Aki Iwamura walked, then Andy LaRoche and Andrew McCutchen went deep. The 3-0 lead lasted for, oh, about ten minutes, when Paul Maholm walked Ricky Weeks, served up a gopher ball to Carlos Gomez, and had a Ryan Braun double end up a small ball run.
But after that, it evolved into a ball game. The Pirate bats, as they are wont to do, went into a deep slumber, and the Brew Crew lumber, with the exception of one swing, joined them in la-la land.
Maholm went seven innings, giving up Cory Hart's homer in the fourth and otherwise limiting the damage. Chris Narveson gave Milwaukee five innings, and three other relievers stymied the Bucs until the ninth.
Ahead 4-3, Hell's Bell's blasted over the PA and Trevor Hoffman. JR almost tripped over himself sending up pinch hitter Ryan Doumit, who clobbered a grand slam off Hoffman just a few hours earlier. Hoffman learned his lesson and threw soft stuff; Dewey stuck out an arm and nine-ironed another homer.
Then came some see-sawing. McCutchen hit his second tater in the tenth, but Octavio Dotel gave it back when Casey McGehee singled in the tie-maker. The next three innings were owned by the pitchers, until the thirteenth.
A single brought Jim Edmonds charging home from second, but Doumit, now catching, made amends for his blown tag of Monday. He blocked the plate like it was Fort Knox, and Lasting's Milledge gunned the throw to cut down Edmonds.
That would be the Brew Crew's last hurrah. Garrett Jones had the game-winner, a two-out RBI double off Manny Parra in the 14th to score Iwamura, who had beat out an infield single to lead off the inning. D.J. Carrasco then finished out his third scoreless inning of relief to put it away for his first Bucco W.
-- Brian Burres got the nod to pitch tomorrow against the Dodgers; Jeff Karstens was confirmed to finish the series Sunday.
-- Andy LaRoche and Ryan Church both were ejected from the game by plate umpire D.J. Reyburn for disputing called strikeouts; Aki Iwamura had the good sense to just look heavenwards when he was rung up on a wormburner. Might help explain the nineteen! punchouts recorded by the Brewer staff.
-- For the sixth straight appearance, Octavio Dotel allowed a run. Today probably wasn't his fault. Iwamura couldn't come up with a likely DP grounder that instead bounced into center, allowing the run to score.
-- JR must not have liked yesterday's lineup. He has Aki Iwamura batting leadoff, Andrew McCutchen hitting third, Lastings Milledge fifth and Jeff Clement sixth. Jason Jaramillo is hitting seventh, giving last night's hero, Ryan Doumit, a blow.
-- Former Braves outfielder Brandon Jones, who the Pirates claimed earlier this year and then released during one of the recent pitching purges, passed through waivers and was reassigned to Indy.
-- Daniel Moskos picked up his fourth save in four opportunities for Altoona last night. The lefty has allowed just one run and six hits in 9-1/3 innings so far this season in his first shot at working exclusively out of the bullpen.
-- William West, staff writer for the Carnegie Signal-Item, has a piece on Jimmy Leyland's son Patrick, a catcher from Bishop Canevin who's committed to Maryland to play ball.
3 comments:
Well, I freely admit I didn't see this coming. Even more amazing, both teams now have the same record, 9-12. Where would the Brewers be if they hadn't had the Pirates to beat up on earlier in the season?
I still say Kerrigan, at minimum, should be fired, the more so because he evidently didn't want to come back to the team this season.
That 9-12 record is amazing, Will. There's no logic to dictate how they can win so many close games.
As for Kerrigan, I'm not sure he and JR are on the same page; heck, I'm not even sure they read from the same book. so that may turn into a dynamic to watch.
Again, what gets me about Kerrigan is that 1) so many of our pitchers, whether they came from inside the organization or outside, have gotten so much worse since he came aboard, and 2) he evidently did not want to come back to Pittsburgh this year, which is why we have an "assistant pitching coach" in Ray Searage. To my knowledge, no other team in the majors has a second pitching coach. If Kerrigan was that loathe to return here, why did he come back? If he's that anxious to retire---or more likely in my mind, to jump off a sinking ship before his overinflated reputation is tarnished---well, then: here's a fishing pole and some severance pay, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Prima donna coaches are just as bad as prima donna athletes, if not worse. We don't need either one.
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