Bucs Go Quietly Into The Night 4-0

Well, even a spring training pitching rotation couldn't get the Bucco bats to respond; the team ended 2012  the same way it started, victims of a whitewash. Eight Bravo pitchers combined to shut out the Pirates 4-0 this afternoon. AJ wasn't up to the task, having a rough afternoon and leaving after giving up a four-spot in 5-2/3 innings.

Though he gave up eight hits, he wasn't exactly pummeled. He gave up a run in the first when he went full and then walked Michael Bourn, who promptly swiped second and third and touched home on Martin Prado's sac fly. In the fourth, Jason Heyward bounced a ball up the middle, stole second, and came in on Dan Uggla's single.

In the sixth, Chipper Jones hit a ground ball single to right and Heyward legged out an infield single. A bouncer moved them up, and they plated on a single and a bobbled DP roller to first. There were a pair of ovations that inning; the first for Chipper, who was a pinch hitter, and the second for AJ when he came out with two down and gave a tip o' the cap to the crowd, finishing the year 16-10/3.51.

The 20,615 fans got their feet a third time when Andrew McCutchen was taken out in the eighth frame. And those ringing cheers, Bucco fans, were the highlights of the day.

Offensively, it was just another bad day at the office, as we've seen too often. Four hits, 11 punch outs, and just three runners stranded. But hey...wait 'til next year. It's only 179 days away.

• The Bucs finished 79-83, finishing in fourth place in the NL Central.
• Cutch's numbers for 2012: .327 BA, 31 homers, 96 RBI, 107 runs and 194 hits.   
• The AJ/Hot Rod tandem ended up giving up 38 stolen bases in 38 attempts, though Burnett did pick a couple of guys off, including one today.
• The final attendance for 2012 was 2,091,918 (avg. 26,149/80 games), the second highest in franchise history.
• Rob Biertempfel of the Trib tweeted that "George Washington University is expected to announce Tuesday that hitting coach Gregg Ritchie will be their new head baseball coach." We wonder if he'll be the only sacrificial lamb?