Bats Snooze, Buccos Lose 2-1

Ben Lively and Ivan Nova worked around first-inning doubles to put up zeroes; they each gave up a single in the second, again with no damage. The Bucs put together a walk (Gregory), knock (Starling), and walk (J-Bell) with two outs in the third. Lively hung a hook to Corey D, but he got under it a bit with the wind blowing in at 15 MPH, and his fly fell short to end the dance. Ivan diverged from the script, giving up a single and balk to keep it at nil. Jordy walked in the fourth and became the sixth LOB, tho he at least turned the order over; the Phils went down quietly. It was another single and strand for Pittsburgh in the fifth, with 1B Carlos Santana (shoulda stuck to guitar) maybe saving a run when he stabbed J-Bell's rope ticketed for the RF corner. It was another clean frame for Nova.

Ivan did his part tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

The Pirates put up a point at last in the sixth. Cervy got bopped by a pitch, was doubled to third by Red Beard and scored on Jordy's fly. With first open, Gabe Kapler's decision to go after Mercer instead of walking him to get to Nova came back to bite him. The Phils answered with back-to-back, one-out singles to put Quakers on the corners. Ivan got his grounder, but the Bucs couldn't turn two around-the-horn (Moran had the out at home, but opted to go for the inning-ender; he opted wrong) and the game was knotted. Adam Morgan came in for Lively and tossed a calm seventh frame. Nova also said adios, giving up a run in six innings on five hits with three K after 92 tosses, doing the hard way, w/o his curve. Michael Feliz perched on the rubber and added another goose egg to the scoreboard.

Luis Garcia got the eighth inning call and gave up a couple of smoked balls, but everything found leather. George Kontos took his turn and gave up a leadoff double; a grounder moved him up 90'. It was an easy jog home after Odubel Herrera tripled into the RF corner (a ball that barely got past J-Bell with the infield drawn in) followed by a walk. The inning ended weirdly; Rhys Hoskins was caught off first, he was rundown abd Herrera got himself tagged out too as the outfielders got involved - for scorekeepers, it went 1-3-4-2-5-8-7. Anyway, Hector Neris came in with a 2-1 lead and was tagged for a one-out double by Jordy, who was run for by S-Rod even tho we fail to see any advantage, but hey...Freeser and Fraze couldn't get the ball out of the infield, so Usain Bolt wouldn't have helped much.

Michael Feliz has been strong, too (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

The Bucs did hit the ball better today; it wasn't a good game for ball luck. And if the wind is calm for Corey D and Colin throws home instead of to second...well, we'd see wings on pigs, too, lol. Though Clint doesn't like to "overcook" (ie, think) too much, he may want to consider dropping Kontos down to a seventh inning guy or better yet, to the #3 high-leverage arm behind Feliz and Vazquez. And with J-Hay out, he should be plotting to get Cervy somewhere up top, with he and Starling as the top pair in whichever order and Gregory hitting third.

Notes:

• Gregory had two hits; the Pirates only had six on the night.
• The Phillies are tough at home; they're 7-1, the best start ever at Citizens Bank Park.
• AJ Schugel will continue his rehab at Indianapolis.
• SABR will hold its annual convention in Pittsburgh between June 20-24th, and some of the speakers include GM Neal Huntington, data exec Dan Fox, ol' pitcher John Candelaria and PNC Park manager Tom Kennedy. If you're interested (you don't have to be a member to attend the events), here's the info.