Bronson Baffles Bucs

Bronson Arroyo was named for Charles Bronson, and he sure as heck has been a tough guy against the Pirates, shutting them out 4-0 tonight.

Both sides scuffled for runs; the Reds had a guy thrown out at home and a runner picked off second followed by a hit, while the Pirates lost an opportunity when Garrett Jones was called out for leaving the baseline in a debatable call; the Bucs ended up leaving the bases juiced that inning.

After leaving the bases loaded, they got the first two runners aboard in the sixth for Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones, the three-four hitters. They managed a weak pop up and weaker DP.

Dusty Baker looked like a genius when he sat down Pirate nemesis Joey Votto for Miguel Cairo tonight. Cairo, 36, lined his first homer of the season, and only his second in the past five years.

Ohlie went six innings and gave up three runs on eight hits and five walks, but stranded eight to keep the Bucs in the game. He was up and his velocity was 89-91 on the heater; he's still struggling to get back into pitching shape.

Bronson Arroyo looked, as usual, like he was Greg Maddux against the Bucs, going 7-2/3 innings and giving up five hits. The Bucs loaded the bases against Nick Masset, but Daniel Herrera whiffed Garrett Jones on a 66 MPH breaker, after watching his first pitch sail out of the stadium, well foul, to end the eighth. That was the last hurrah.

Neil Walker continues to see the ball well; he had two of the Pirates' six hits. He's still rusty at third, though - he only played there once at Indy this season, He does have a lot of experience at the position from prior years (353 games), so the learning curve shouldn't be too hard to handle.

Charlie Morton goes against Johnny Cueto tomorrow; we'll see how long Cueto lasts. he was pulled from his last start with a blister.

-- The Pirates have been shut out seven times this year. The Reds staff has three shut outs, and all of them are against the Pirates.

-- Going into tonight's game, Pirate nine-hole hitters have the lowest batting average in the league at .063. Conversely, opposing nine-spot hitters have the highest average in the league against Pittsburgh, hitting .250. Oddly, opposing lead off men are hitting just .241, although Pirate table setters are hitting just .191, thank you, Aki.

-- A lot of mock drafts are flying around, and in the last two days, AOL Fanhouse writer Frankie Piliere, MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo, and ESPN's Keith Law (behind a subscription wall) all have the Pirates taking high school shortstop Manny Machado.

-- Melissa Segura of SI.com tweets that the Mets, Pirates and Astros appear to be interested in signing Dominican third baseman Elvis Sanchez.