Aaargh, Mateys; Bucs Dropped 8-1

Mama said there'd be nights like this, and dang if mama ain't always right.

The first started innocently enough for Charlie Morton, who coaxed a grounder out of the opening Met hitter.  But a plunked batter was followed by a walk.  Ronny Cedeno's errorless streak ended when the SS bobbled a DP ball to load the sacks.  A roller to first brought home a run, and it was 1-0 NY.

The Bucs answered, though, off the undefeated Dillon Gee.  Jose Tabata rolled a single up the middle, and Josh Harrison laid one down for another knock.  McCutch made it three in a row when he took one into center, plating JT.  But the Pirate attacked fizzled after that, Gee helping himself with a nifty behind-the-back grab, and it remained 1-1 after a frame.

It would stay that way for a couple of more frames.  Both sides went down quietly in the second and shot themselves in the foot with DPs in the third after lead-off hits.  But some Met knocks and Bucco near-misses led to a big fourth inning.

Angel Pagan lined a double to left and Lucas Duda singled sharply into center.  Pagan scored and Duda scampered to third when McCutch's throw home sailed well over the cut-off and catcher.  Josh Thole brought him in as his soft liner to right fell for a hit when Walker couldn't quite get to the ball, missing the grab by a glove length.

Ruben Tejada roped a single to center to put runners at first and second.  A Gee bunt was pushed up the line, and Lyle Overbay got the lead runner; the relay back just missed being a DP.  Jose Reye's ball to the right side bounced off Overbay's glove into right (it was ruled a single); to load the bases.  Justin Turner smacked an apparent DP ball up the middle; it bounced off Morton's foot and deflected into center, scoring a pair. Carlos Beltran hit a sac fly to bring home another.

Some well struck balls and a couple more that wouldn't find the leather combined to put the Metropolitans up 6-1.  Diaz rapped a two-out single for the Bucs, and it was on to the fifth.

Pagan led off with a triple, played pretty poorly by Diaz, and that brought on Daniel McCutchen, who promptly gave up a sac fly.  CM went four innings, giving up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits with a walk, hit batter, and K. He tossed 81 pitches and struggled with his command all night.

The Bucs hit into another DP to end their half.  NY kept adding on; this time, Jose Reyes homered off D-Mac.  The Pirates went down 1-2-3  and Danny Moskos took the hill.  He gave up a bloop single to stem the bleeding; the Bucs went down in order again.  Fresh off the farm righty Tim Wood took the ball for the eighth.

Throwing 95-96, he got the first two outs routinely before walking Beltran on a 3-2 changeup.  He finished the Mets off with a ground out.  Gee struck out the first two batters before JT legged out a swinging bunt.  Harrison followed with a single to center.  That brought up Xavier Paul, who was a sub for McCutch, giving him a blow during the blow-out.  He grounded out.

Jose Veras toed the rubber in the ninth, getting a low-leverage outing to work on regaining his mojo.  His control was still off, but he pitched a clean inning. Tim Byrdak came to close it out for NY.   He struck out Walker.  Overbay singled, but pinch hitter Wyatt Toregas bounced into an entirely fitting game-ending 6-4-3 DP.

RA Dickey goes against James McDonald tomorrow night.

• Chris Snyder's disk surgery went well, but he's still expected to miss 2-4 months, so his season may be done.
• JT and Josh Harrison combined for five of the Pirates nine singles. They also grounded into two of the team's three DPs.  
• The Bucs drew 24,653 fans at PNC Park tonight.
• As Jen Langosch of MLB.com notes, the Bucs have nine guys on the DL right now, and not a single one of them is near returning, including Steve Pearce and Pedro.  Both catchers are out until at least after the All-Star break and probably longer.  Joe Beimel isn't scheduled for even a bullpen session until next week.  Evan Meek is visiting Dr. James Andrews Monday.  Pitchers Mike Crotta, Ohlie, Kevin Hart are in various stages of tossing.  And even minor league catcher Jason Jaramillo is thought be at least two weeks from recovery.
• Harrison reminds us a bit of Manny Sanguillen - he runs pretty well and never saw a pitch he didn't like or couldn't reach.  In 38 plate appearances, he hasn't walked and whiffed just once.   Of course, that average, now at .270, needs to climb to the .300 level to be truly Manny-esque.  A few more doubles wouldn't hurt the comparison either. 
• Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports that the Cards have released Ramon Vazquez, whose last MLB action was in Pittsburgh in 2009.