Pirates @ Astros: 8.30.11

I've really been lacking in posts recently and for that I am sorry. I didn't deliver on the draft pick post or posts concerning the trading deadline. I also have been struggling to get up series and game previews and honestly its unacceptable. Now that football is getting started and the pirates are officially in the tank and playing some really bad baseball, I'm looking at you bullpen, writing about them is tough. I will try to power through and that begins tonight. Charlie Morton take the hill against some guy named Sosa looking for his 10th win. Morton struggled in his previous outing but before that had been pretty special in the month of August. I think the pirates really need a win tonight because losing a series to the Astros is just flat out unacceptable. With that being said, look for Morton to be special and for Presley and Walker to have big games. Bucs win 6-1.

Pirates @ Cardinals: 8.25.11 - Live Blog

We will be live blogging tonight for Charlie Morton's start against the Cardinals.  Party starts roughly at 8pm.  See you there...

8:29pm - OK.  I lied.  There will be no live blog tonight as I am now firmly entrenched in watching the Little League World Series game that features Pennsylvania.  It also features a crowd of over 33,000 fans.  Unbelievable.  Go over to ESPN 2 and check it out and Let's Go Keystone!

Pirates vs. Brewers: 8.23.11

Sorry I have been absent from posting lately.  Yesterday my dad and I took in the doubleheader against the Brewers and if you want to know what I thought about it.  Check me out on twitter (@bfollett21) since that is how I was reacting while I was at the game last night.  Tonight's game sees Ross Ohlendorf return to the team to make his first start since April 8th (wow).  He will be opposed by Marco Estrada who shut down the Pirates the last time they saw him, going 5 innings while allowing no runs on 1 hit.  I don't expect Ohlendorf to be very good, but hopefully he pitches like the power pitcher he can be rather than the sissy pitch to contact guy that he has shown in the past.  I know the guy can ramp it up into the mid 90's so that is what I want to see from him tonight.  Hopefully that, and the Pirates pitchers continue to dominate Prince Fielder who was 0 for the doubleheader last night.  In the end, tonight's game is about building on the momentum and the feeling of success that the ballclub has from finally beating the Brewers (and doing it pretty handily, I might add) and allowing that one game success turn into something I like to call a winning streak.  Let's Go Bucs.

P.S. If you haven't heard, Jose Tabata signed an extremely team friendly 6 year contract that buys up all his arbitration years.  The deal will pay Tabata $500,000 this year, $750,000 in 2012, 1 million in 2013, 3 million in 2014, 4 million in 2015 and 4.5 million in 2016.  The deal also includes team options for Tabata's first THREE free agency years.  Those would be 6.5 million for 2017, 7.5 million for 2018 and 8.5 million for 2019.  Talk about a deal.  Wow.  Tabata loves playing in Pittsburgh and this deal should allow the talented outfielder to patrol right field in PNC Park for many years to come.

Draft Recap

I know this is going to come pretty late but I want to make sure I hit everything that I want to since what the Pirates did on draft day frankly hasn't ever been done in the history of baseball.  The Pirates spent 17.4 million dollars on 24 draft picks and gave a record 8 million to 1st overall pick Gerrit Cole and another record 5 million to 2nd round pick Josh Bell.  I plan to recap the top 2 picks and the rest of the draft class and what their signing with the Pirates mean to the organization.  All of this will come over the weekend, stay tuned...

Pirates vs. Reds: 8.19.11 - 8.21.11

Series: Pirates vs. Reds; PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

TV, radio: Root Sports (Fri/Sun) & FOX (Sat), WPGB-FM (104.7).

Facts/Reaction: The Pirates enter their weekend series with the Reds after winning 2 of 3 games against NL Central rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals.  This series victory comes off the heels of a series sweep at the hands of the NL Central leading Brewers.  The Pirates have won 2 of the last 3 series after losing 10 straight games.  The team also now has won more games this year (58) than all of last year (57).  The Pirates are now entering a stretch where they will play 20 of their next 21 games against NL Central rivals, with the lone out of division game coming in the form of a rain makeup game on  September 1st against the Dodgers.

Pitching Probables:

Friday, August 19 - Kevin Correia (12-11, 4.62 ERA) vs. Homer Bailey (7-5, 4.43 ERA)

Saturday, August 20 - Charlie Morton (9-6, 3.43 ERA) vs. Dontrelle Willis (0-3, 4.08 ERA)
 

Sunday, August 21 - James McDonald (8-6, 4.20 ERA) vs. TBA (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Stats and Matchup: The Pirates enter this weekend's series 13.5 GB in the Central and 1.5 games behind the 3rd place Reds.  The Pirates took 2 of 3 from the Reds in the series played at PNC Park in a series that had the Pirates 7 games above .500 and in 1st place.  How fast and far the Buccos have fallen since then.  However, the Pirates are 7-2 against the Reds this season and have won every series that they have played against them.

Friday - The Pirates will face Homer Bailey for the first time this season.  Bailey has been good as of late, going 2-0 with a 3.50 ERA in his last 3 starts.  Jones, Doumit and McCutchen have averages over .300 in their career against Bailey.  Opposing Bailey is Kevin Correia who is 0-3 in his last 3 starts but pitched 7 innings while only giving up 1 run in a 1-0 loss to the Brewers last Saturday.

Saturday - Charlie Morton looks to put together his 4th good start in a row.  Morton is 1-0, with a 0.40 ERA and 16 strikeouts in his past 3 starts.  How crazy is it that after last season where Charlie was 2-12 with a 7.57 ERA, he is going for his 10th win of the year and has an ERA under 3.50.  All I can say is, unbelievable.

Sunday - James McDonald against who knows since the Reds haven't announced it year.  Up in the rotation would be Mike Leake, who the Pirates have already beaten this year.  So whether it is him or someone else, we will see.

Prediction: Pirates win 2 of 3 in front of huge home crowds.  Charlie wins his 10th game of the year and the Pirates go to 9-3 on the season against their NL Central division rivals.

Pirates vs. Cardinals: 8.15.11

I decided not to write today because let's be honest, the weekend in Milwaukee sucked.  The Pirates return home to play the Cardinals after getting swept by the Brewers (although they could have pretty easily won 2 of 3 if they would have gotten ANY offense).  Anyways, Pirates vs. Cardinals tonight.  McDonald vs. Westbrook.  Lastly, for the Pirates to win they must get some offense from Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker who were a combined 2 for 23 in the series against the Brewers with both hits coming off the bat of McCutchen.  As we have seen, this team has very little offense and in order to win their "best" offensive weapons need to step up.  Let's go Bucs!

Pirates @ Brewers: 8.13.11

Friday night's game against the Brewers was just about the same as any other game against the Brewers over the past 4 or 5 years so I'm not really even going to talk much about it.  The Pirates lost 7-2, only had 6 hits and struck out 9 times against Zach Greinke.  Same stuff, different day with the Pirates vs. Brewers, now on to today's game.

Programming Note: Today's matchup is @ 4:10pm and will be on FOX as their Saturday Game of the Week.  I wonder how pissed FOX is that they are wasting their time on a Pittsburgh team that was flying high and in first place when they made their game choice for this weekend but is now 11 games back in the NL Central after going 2-12 in their last 14 games.  Oh well.

Kevin Correia (12-10, 4.78 ERA) vs. Marco Estrada (2-7, 4.80 ERA)

Well Correia has been flat out bad recently, going 1-2 with a 8.36 ERA and only 8 strikeouts in his last 3 starts.  However, there is a bright side, Correia is 10-2 with a 2.74 ERA in 13 starts away from PNC Park this year.  So there may be a little bit of hope for his prospects of pitching well against such a potent Brewers lineup.  Correia hasn't exactly pitched well against Milwaukee but those were seasons past.  Opposing Correia is Marco Estrada, who was injected into the starting rotation as a spot start for Chris Narveson.  He has been in the bullpen for most of the season and hasn't made a start since early May when he gave up 7 runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Braves.  In order for the Pirates to win, they need to play from ahead.  To do this they will need to get to Estrada early and often and hopefully during that time, Correia can hold off the Brewers potent attack.  In the end, all I want is for Hanrahan to enter the game in a meaningful situation and since Hurdle refuses to use him unless it is a save situation, the Pirates are going to have the lead going into the bottom of the 9th.  Hanrahan has made 12 consecutive scoreless appearances and has posted a 0.63 ERA in his past 42 appearances.  The Pirates are 50-0 this season when leading after 8 innings, let see if they can make it 51-0.  Let's Go Bucs!

Off Day & Brewers Series Game 1

Today the Pirates spend their off day enjoying their first series victory since taking 2 of 3 at home against Cincinnati July 18-20.  Their recent series against the Giants saw the Pirates return to the recipe of success that had them 7 games over .500 and in 1st place only 2 1/2 weeks ago.  In their 2 victories against the Giants the Pirates starters allowed 2 runs in 14 innings pitched and the bullpen didn't give up a run in 4 innings of work.  On top of the pitching's strong outings, the Pirates got timely hitting on Monday from Garrett Jones (4 for 5) and Ryan Ludwick (2 for 3, 2 RBI) as well as on Wednesday from Andrew McCutchen (1 for 1, 2 RBI, 4 R) and Ludwick again (3 for 4).  It is good to see both Jones and Ludwick starting to hit and hopefully they will be able to provide a spark behind McCutchen in the lineup until Tabata or Pressley return.

With the success of the Giants series now behind them, the Pirates will turn their focus to their upcoming 3 game series in Milwaukee.  The Pirates have struggled mightily at Miller Park over the last few years going 3-33 since 2007, which includes 0-3 this year.  The Pirates pitchers have a 6.61 ERA at Miller Park and have surrendered 59 home runs so in order to win any games against the Brewers the Pirates must pitch well and the first player put to the task will be Friday's starter Paul Maholm.

Friday's Matchup:

Paul Maholm (6-12, 3.54 ERA) vs. Zack Greinke (10-4, 4.21 ERA)

Paul Maholm takes the mound Friday at Milwaukee in his first start since giving up a season high 7 earned runs in 6 2/3 innings.  Maholm is 3-7 in his career against Milwaukee with a 4.41 ERA.  Surprisingly, Prince Fielder is a career .071 hitter against Maholm with 0 home runs and 3 RBI in 42 at bats.  However, the Brewers first baseman is hitting .407 with 2 home runs and 9 RBI during the month of August.  Hopefully the Pirates and Maholm can play well and possibly even win a game.  After their current 10 game losing streak, I would have to think that a 3-3 road trip against the Giants and Brewers would be considered wildly successful.  Let's Go Bucs!

Pirates @ Giants: 8.9.11

James McDonald (7-5, 4.23 ERA) vs. Madison Bumgarner (6-11, 3.71 ERA)

The Pirates finally got off the snide with one of their most complete wins of the season.  Last nights 5-0 win against the Giants will hopefully get the Pirates back on track towards a .500 season now that the division race is out of reach.  Not to dwell on the past but the Pirates were in first place 13 short days ago and have fallen to the point where they are now 9.5 games out of first.  No other team has fallen so far, so fast in the history of baseball.  Not exactly a part of history that you want attached to your team.  With that being said, the Pirates have a chance to start a winning streak and build on the success of last night.  Let's see if they can do it.  Let's go Bucs.

Pirates @ Giants: 8.8.11

Charlie Morton (8-6, 3.80 ERA) vs. Ryan Vogelsong (9-1, 2.19 ERA)

Well I am back even though I said I wouldn't be until the Pirates broke this dreadful losing streak.  The streak has now reached 10 games with no end in sight now that the Pirates have road series with the Giants and Brewers.  Vogelsong earned his first win of the season in late April against the Pirates.  During that game I said that the Pirates would be able to get to Vogelsong.  Boy was I wrong.  He went 5 2/3 innings while giving up 1 run and striking out 8.  In order for the Pirates to have a chance to win tonight, Charlie Morton is going to have to be just as good as he was in his last start against the Cubs.  Morton threw 7 shut out innings in which he struck out 7 and only allowed 5 hits.  This losing streak is at the point where it is not only about the team being bad or struggling, but also about the mental aspect of losing 10 games in a row, with 7 of them coming at home to teams which the Pirates had won series against earlier in the year.  The Pirates need a win, bad...hopefully they can get back on the right foot tonight in San Fransisco.  Let's Go Bucs.

I'm not posting again until after the pirates win and break this losing streak...until then, let's go bucs.

Pirates vs. Cubs: Must win...?

Dear Pirates,

For my sanity, you NEED to win tonight.  Get in the lead and play good, all around baseball to get the taste of losing 4 straight out of your mouths.  The guy who is on the mound for the Cubs has a 6.16 ERA.  Score some runs and leave no doubt in the game.  Let Hanrahan pitch the 9th even though it isn't a save situation.  We all need a win.  Now go out and do it.  Thanks.

Ben

P.S. If you could also win the next 2 against Chicago and then sweep the weekend series with San Diego, that would be great.  Thanks.

Pirates vs. Cubs: 8.1.11

Trying to do a live blog tonight so I can not only give you game reaction but also some thoughts about the trades and the direction of the ballclub.  7:05pm start time, be there or be square...

Pirates (54-52) vs. Cubs (43-65) @ 7:05 PM, PNC Park, Pittsburgh, PA

Lineups:

Pirates:                                                                    Cubs:

Andrew McCutchen, CF                                     Reed Johnson, RF

Garrett Jones, RF                                              Starlin Castro, SS

Neil Walker, 2B                                                 Jeff Baker, 3B

Derrek Lee, 1B                                                  Geovany Soto, C

Ryan Ludwick, LF                                              Marlon Byrd, CF

Pedro Alvarez, 3B                                             Alfonso Soriano, LF

Ronny Cedeno, SS                                            Carlos Pena, 1B

Mike McKenry, C                                               Darwin Barney, 2B

Paul Maholm, LHP                                            Carlos Zambrano, RHP

Game Updates:

7:10pm - Quick inning for Paul Maholm getting two groundballs, with one going for a double play.  Nice inning.  Bucs turn to bat and hopefully we see Lee and Ludwick get their first cracks in the bottom of the 1st.

7:19pm - Pirates go down nice and quick against Zambrano in the 1st with Derrek Lee's debut a strikeout.

7:29pm - Maholm has walked two and struck out two in the top of the 2nd and now is ahead 1-2 on Darwin Barney, will the two walks come back to haunt him...?  Now a passed ball and a full count to Barney.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd, need a big pitch from Maholm with Zambrano, an excellent hitting pitcher in the on deck circle...

7:32pm - Barney pops up and Maholm gets out of the inning.  He has attacked hitters all year and he got away from that in Pena's at bat.  Need to go right at him, can't be afraid to make a mistake.

7:37pm - Pedro is up and I would like to see a stat showing how many first pitch fastballs he fouls off to the seats down the left field line.  I think he is pulling off the ball, needs to stay on it all the way through...in my humble opinion.  Well, he didn't strikeout but did GIDP.  Baby steps.

7:48pm - Bucs get behind 1-0 on a sac fly with a real strong throw from Ludwick in left field.  Run scoring got on by HBP.  Free passes will kill you.  Paul is struggling with his control and he either needs to find it soon or the Bucs need to score a couple runs for him.

7:55pm - Cutch just walked, if he doesn't steal with 2 outs I will be pissed.

8:00pm - Jones flies out.  After three, Cubs up 1-0.  Also, nice looking crowd tonight for a Monday.  Good to see people supporting the club after a tough roadtrip.

8:05pm - Maholm retires the Cubs in order including going after Pena and getting him to fly out to center.

8:13pm - As I was typing the fact that the Pirates were quietly getting no hit in the middle of the 4th inning, Derrek Lee launches one into the left field bleachers, tying the score at 1-1.  Neil Huntington = smartest man alive.

8:16pm - Pedro swings at 1st pitch fastball and drills it up the middle, followed by a base hit for Cedeno.  Fort McKenry up with a runner in scoring position and 2 outs.

8:19pm - How the hell did Pedro just get picked off at 2nd.  Unbelievable.

8:27pm - Another double play as Maholm gets out of the 5th after giving up a base hit to Zambrano.

8:35pm - McCutchen hits a ball to the notch that is caught and Maholm gets hit by a groundball that probably would have been an out anyways...no luck tonight.  1-1 after 5 innings.

8:44pm - Maholm gives up 2 singles and a double and now the Bucs are down 2-1 with runners on 2nd and 3rd.  Gonna need some magic to get out of this without much more damage.

8:50pm - A slow roller that can't be turned into a double play and a sacrifice fly and the Pirates now trail 4-1 at the end of the top of the 6th.  Need some runs and need them soon.

9:01pm - Pirates string two hits together but all with 2 outs.  Cedeno swings at ball four (surprise) and the Bucs are still down 4-1.

9:08pm - Grilled cheese goes 1-2-3 in the 7th.  Bucs need to cut into the lead.

9:18pm - Pearce is worthless as a pinch hitter.  Big, long swing and doesn't know how to lay off a curveball in the dirt.  Worthless.

9:29pm - Bottom of the 8th, Need. Runs. Now.

9:32pm - Holy Derrek freakin' Lee.  Hammers a ball into the right centerfield seats.  Neal Huntington = genius.  Keep it going.

9:41pm - Ronny strikes out again on a 3-2 pitch way out of the zone.  Learn plate discipline Ronny.  Bucs now down 4-3 heading to the 9th.

9:51pm - Daniel McCutchen hangs an 0-2 slider and it is drilled into left field for a double scoring a run.  Bucs now down 5-3 heading into the bottom of the 9th.  McKenry, a pinch hitter and then the top of the order will face Marmol.  Need some baserunners.

10:01pm - Bucs lose their 4th straight game and fall to 54-53.  Not good.  Maholm struggled to throw strikes and get ahead of hitters while the offense really couldn't string any hits together.  Only runs scored tonight for the Pirates came on 2 home runs from Derrek Lee who was awesome in his debut.  Ryan Ludwick was ok.  He played really well in left field and put some good swings on the ball.  Bucs need to get healthy against the Cubs over the next few days or they may really go into a free fall.  Until tomorrow sports fans...