Rapid Reaction: Rockies Series

Well I was completely wrong in just about every way possible when it comes to the opening home series against the Rockies.  While Opening Day was beautiful and had all the makings of a great day day for baseball, the teams error ridden performance made the game hard to watch from the 2nd inning on.  In game 2, the Buccos got behind early and looked to be down and out after Ross Ohlendorf left the game in the 3rd inning with shoulder pain.  Ross was placed on the DL yesterday and will miss at the very least his next two starts.  Hopefully the Pirates don't allow Daniel McCutchen to make those starts and give the opportunity to a guy that actually has some upside, say Brad Lincoln, Rudy Owens or even Justin Wilson.  Anyways, the Pirates were able to fight their way back into the game with the help of a scoreless 11 1/3 innings from the bullpen.  Jose Tabata hit his first home run and also doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th for the win.  The last two games of the series were eerily similar in the sense that both James McDonald and Charlies Morton had decent outings that were lost by the bullpen in the end.  Charlie Morton struggled a bit in the 1st inning with his control but was able to rebound for his 2nd good start of the season.  His final line: 7.0 IP, 5 hits, 2 ER, 5 BB and 1 K.  The BB/K ratio is obviously concerning.  I think this is in part because Charlie is now pounding the zone with his sinker and getting a lot of outs without having to rely on his breaking stuff to strike guy out.  Although you would like to see him get more K's, it is nice to know that if he has to pitch a game where K's are needed, he has the stuff to do it.  On the other side of the coin, he can pitch to contact and still get people out.  McDonald on the other hand gave up 4 runs in the 1st inning, only to right the ship and eventually leave the game with the lead.  However, Mike Crotta's disasterous 7th inning gave the game away.  Crotta entered the game with 2 outs in the 7th and a runner on 1st base and gave up a single and 3 walks all while only throwing 7 strikes out of 21 pitches.  The end of the series had the same feeling as the beginning, disappointment and the Pirates were only able to take 1 of 4 from the Rockies.  The series also showed us that the Pirates are really struggling to hit right now.  Both Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez have struck out 14 times, which for Pedro isn't too surprising because we know that he can be pretty feast or famine.  Also, he is known as a slow starter, but a .195 average with 14 K's and no home runs is a bit worrisome.  Walker on the other hand is a contact guy and needs good control of the strike zone to be successful.  His average is still at .300 but the K's are a big deal and he MUST learn to limit them if he is going to be a go 2 hitter.  McCutchen is struggling a bit but I am not too worried about him.  He is such a natural hitter and player that he will still get his throughout the season, although he has yet to steal a base, which I am a bit concerned about but that could be partly because he hasn't been consistently on base.  The lone bright spot seems to be Jose Tabata.  Tabata is hitting .342 with 11 runs scored, 2 home runs and 5 stolen bases.  He has also hit safely in all 10 games this season, pretty good stuff.  Anyways, the team is 5-5 and look forward to a day off tomorrow before the 3 game set against the Brewers to finish the home stand.