Jonathan Sanchez threw BP to the Cards in the opening round. A four pitch walk and back-to-back singles put St. Louis up a run; a throwing error by Clint Barmes gave them another. That was offset by a great grab by Cutch to take away extra bases from Matt Holliday and limit the damage to two runs.
The Bucs wasted little time battering Jake Westbrook. After an out, Pittsburgh banged out five straight singles, got a couple of Card boots to help the cause, and repaid them when Pedro ran into an out on the basepaths. When the smoke cleared, it was 4-2 Buccos.
Sanchez tossed a 1-2-3 second, striking out a pair of Redbirds. Westbrook escaped too, giving up just a single to the Dominican hitting machine Starling Marte. Then a bit before eight o'clock, the umps waved for the ground crew, and the tarps were rolled out. An hour later, the game was called with no makeup date set.
St. Louis isn't scheduled to play here again until the end of July, then again at the end of August. The good news is that the Buc bullpen finally got a night off.
AJ Burnett has another test tomorrow evening against rookie phenom Shelby Miller (2-0/1.46 ERA).
- Pedro Alvarez picked up his first RBI since Opening Day, and *poof*
- Gerrit Cole looked a little more comfortable on the hill today. He went 6-1/3 frames for Indy, giving up a run on four hits with an untidy four walks and five whiffs, tossing 95 pitches.
- Stetson Allie hit his sixth homer tonight for West Virginia.
Wellll....Miller isn't exactly a phenom. He has been a little slower to arrive than many expected. However, he does have first round pedigree and as you say, Ron, he's mowin' 'em down this season in the early going. I sure hope the Pirates stop wasting Burnett's generally very good pitching sometime soon. With any run support he would have won 20 last year, and he's been on it this year, as well. He won't last forever, though, so they should make hay while the sun shines and before the kitchen timer dings on his career.
ReplyDeleteHe has been dependable, Will, and you're right about gettin' while the gettin' is good; he spoke of possibly retiring next season. So we'll see how this campaign goes for AJ.
ReplyDelete