Friday, May 13, 2011

Rain Rain

OK, the Buccos were rained out. Since the storm didn’t hit until 8 PM or so, it begs the question why the get-away game wasn’t an afternoon affair; it surely couldn’t have been for attendance reasons, being a non-promotional Thursday night. Oh well.

It didn’t look like they were off to much of a start against LA anyway. The two dry innings finished up 1-0 in favor of the Blue when with two outs in the second, Charlie Morton let the 7-8 hitters get knocks and pitcher Jon Garland singled one home.

The game will be replayed from the beginning. There has been no make-up date announced. And seeing how LA isn’t scheduled to visit Pittsburgh again this season, unless it means something at the end of the year, it’s just a lost game.

However, the game did deliver a message. Clint Hurdle and that accountability thing, so often spoken of but so rarely practiced in the JR era, teamed up again. Hey, it’s one thing to bench Ronny Cedeno for not running out a ball, but yesterday he benched the Big Kahuna, Andrew McCutchen, for not running out a third strike that got by the catcher.

And you can believe that bit of news traveled around the clubhouse in a hurry. McCutch apologized and took his seat like a man, and the club will be a little stronger for it.

Now it’s off to Brew Town, where of late the Pirates have played the goldfish in the bowl to the Brewers’ Garfield. The Pirates have lost 28 of the last 30 games played there, including that horrendous series early last year when the staff imploded and Pittsburgh was outscored 36-1 in three games, including a record-book 20-0 whipping.

This series should prove whether the Pirates are indeed road warriors in 2011.

James McDonald will face off against Yovani Gallardo tonight.

(Sorry this post was so late; Blogger was squirrelly today)

No comments: