Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bucs: Bruised and Beaten

Ah, a lot of heat about the Dodgers beanballing the Bucs, and probably deserved. Zach Duke didn't bop anyone back, but then again, he had enough problems. Like too many starting pitchers, he gave up a three-run homer to Andre Ethier - shouldn't a guy with a name like that be playing for the Canadians? - that brought out the fat lady in a 5-1 loss to LA. And on an 0-2 pitch yet.

Duke had a chance to even things up when reliever Ramon Ortiz, who buzzed Andrew McCutcheon a couple of times (although the real culprit was Carlos Monasterios, who drilled Lastings Milledge and Ronny Cedeno), came up. But down 4-1 in the sixth, he did the smart thing and just struck him out instead of putting a free runner aboard.

But hey, beanballs are great for heating up a rivalry; three run homers are what wins games. Big Blue had one; the Pirates, held to six hits, didn't. And that's the game story. Very average pitching, very poor hitting, and another game in the loss column.

Jeff Karstens will try to repeat his effort of last week today during get-away day.

-- Garrett Jones go a day off because a piece of meat lodged in his esophagus, and took some docs to get it loose. He expects to be back for today's game.

No comments: