Injury Bug

Well it was only a matter of time before the Pirates pitching started getting hurt. Ian Snell has now joined Phil Dumatrait on the DL, leaving the Pirates with 2 empty slots in the rotation. They have said they will bring up this Barthmaier (spelled wrong) guy to start tomorrow's game, so that should be nothing short of interesting... and I have heard that John Van Benschoten will return to the Pirates to start in place of Snell on Saturday... that could get ugly. I really wanted to see the Pirates bring up some draft picks or someone who seems to have some kind of future with the Pirates, but again I will have to wait to see Brian Bullington or any of our other draft pick busts pitch in the big leagues. Oh well, this is just Pirates baseball. If we would bring these guys up, we would only be sadly reminded of how horrible our minor league pitching really is, and then we would really have nothing to look forward to except the inevitable fire sale of the team. The Pirates still have a respectable record this year... 37-41, only 4 games out of .500 as they head into their rubber match with the New York Yankees tonight. We'd better win this game, because it sure isn't looking like we're gonna win either of the first two games against the Devil Rays with those two pitchers taking the hill against one of the top teams in the league. Paul Maholm will try once again to keep his nice homestand roll going and somehow silence the Yankees bats enough and hope for the Pirates to make up for last nights goose egg. I've said before and I'll say it again, LETS GO BUCS

Ouch

All I can say is, it's a darn good thing the Pirates won last nights game. 

Yankees vs. Pirates Game 1

One of the best Pirate games I have ever witnessed in my life. There's just something about winning with a packed house that makes it feel like the win actually means something. Here's some pictures I took with my 1.5 megapixel camera phone ;)

Douchebag Yankee fan #4 with his Paul O'Neill jersey... Paul O'Neill?? Give me a break.

 One of the 3 mound visits triggered by Tom Gorzelanny's continued wildness. He pitched well enough to hold the Yankees to 3 runs in 6 innings and get his 6th win of the year, but it wasn't too impressive. He got rather lucky at times but did get timely double plays to save his butt. All-in-all, and above average start from Tom.

Lee's (Yankee fan friend) pissed off face after Ryan Doumit went yard to make the game 6-1. I was very pleased to enjoy this face all game long, the Yankees really never had a shot. 

The dark alley we walked down to get to our far away parking garage, in which I was one of the last 10 cars to get into even though it was like a half mile away from the stadium and we were there an hour early. 

A great night all-in-all and a big Pirates win, it always feels good to beat on a MLB team, especially a rich and snotty one like the New York Bankees... I mean Yankees. 

Zach Duke will be going for the series win tomorrow night! Lets go Bucs!

Yankees

Well Monday was a very uneventful day for baseball fans, so I kicked off my SPORTS PODCAST show, which is updated 2-3 times a week on my website, Jon-Anderson.net. So go check it out! I need listeners to get it rolling. 

Anyways, the Pirates are now looking ahead to a 3 game home series with the New York Yankees, the first time the Yankees will come to Pittsburgh (to play baseball) since we beat them in the World Series when Bill Mazeroski walked off. Rightfully so, Bill Mazeroski will be throwing out the first pitch. With this happening, I am saying the Pirates will no doubt win the game tomorrow, and then not fair so well in the next 2 games. Just the sense of Mazeroski in the stadium will give us the win, supernaturally. Darrell (?) Rasner will pitch for the Yankees, a young gun who has been excellent at times. It doesn't matter though, Nolan Ryan could be pitching tomorrow (in his prime) and the Pirates would still win this game. Plus, I'll be at the game, and the Pirates are a winning team when I am in PNC Park. Let's Go Bucs! 

Home Sweet Home

The Pirates are now back home after a disasterous road trip in which they went 1-5. The Pirates have played great baseball at home all season long, just as almost every Major League team, and they have a 22-15 record on the year in PNC Park. This looks to be one of the Pirates more challenging homestands however, despite facing the slumping Blue Jays for the first 3 games. The Pirates defeated the Jays 1-0 last night in 12 innings. Now the Pirates will look to continue their hot streak at home with another win tonight as they send Paul Maholm to the mound. Again I say, Paul has been stellar at home this year and hopefully he can do the same tonight. In my eyes, the Pirates could really use a sweep of the Blue Jays here as they look ahead on their schedule and see 6 games with the Yankees and Rays coming fast. We would very hard pressed to win more than 3 of those 6, but you never know. If the Pirates can beat the Jays tonight, it would make things quite interesting for tomorrow's game as the Pirates will send the unpredictable Ian Snell to the bump tomorrow. I'll be there tomorrow for sure, as I originally planned to go to all 3 games against the Jays, but now I am limited to just one. I

Stop the deception!

As a fairly positive Pirates fan, I have found myself thinking things were going to be "different" in many different situations over the years, as in "this year is different, we will be over .500", or "This start is different, Ian Snell is really gonna get back to last year's form", and in this case it was "This team is different, we can compete in interleague play". Looks like all of those "differences" didn't, and aren't going to happen. Maybe I should stop being so positive and just accept the fact that somethings don't change, the Pirates will always be bad in interleague play, and Ian Snell will never be a #1 starter again. Kinda depressing... Let's hope we can take one from the White Sox tonight with Phil Dumatrait, although I'd be surprised to see it happen, I probably won't even watch this game, I stopped watching last night after Mark Buehrle's no-hitter was broken up. I was kinda rooting for him to get it, what's the deal with that ?

Blowout

The White Sox score 16 runs and Carlos Quentin can't even get one single RBI for my struggling (2nd place) fantasy team? C'mon! 

That Didn't Last Long

Matt Capps strikes again. Capps blew his 3rd save in 4 tries yesterday, but this time the end result was different. Capps gave up a 2-run homer to Brian Roberts (who I really hate now) to tie the game at 4, but luckily for us he stopped it there and got the 3rd out, opening the door for the Pirates in the 10th inning. Adam LaRoche came up big ONCE AGAIN with a go-ahead RBI single in that top of the 10th inning, which led to Matt Capps redemption as he pitched the bottom of the 10th with little trouble, and the Pirates avoided the sweep. On a less serious note, my fantasy team had an ugly week, no thanks to the Matt Capper. Anyways, the Pirates are off today and then head to Chicago for  3 game set against the White Sox, then they come back to PNC for a 9 game homestand against the Blue Jays (going to one game), Yankees (going to 2 games), and Rays (hopefully going to one game). Things aren't going to get any easier for the Pirates. The Blue Jays are one game below .500, and as I looked at the standings to confirm that, I noticed that the Pirates are now in 4th place! The Astros are struggling as of late and the Pirates have done well enough to overtake them in the standings. We are now 2.5 games behind the 3rd place Brewers, and 14.5 games behind the division leading Cubs. The Cubs are really running away with this division, and it's going to take a pretty bad 2nd-half for anyone to overtake them in the central, considering there really aren't any stand-out teams in this division besides the Cubs. The Cubs starting pitching has been much better than expected, and there offense has been producing their moneys' worth. The true story for the Cubs has been the pitching though, and that's how you win baseball games. We get to see Ian Snell try to keep his mini-hot streak going Tuesday as Snell has had 2 good starts in a row. He has been getting progressively better in the last couple weeks, so I am excited to see how it's gonna turn out. Gorzo looks alright too, so let's hope it all works out and the Pirates can make another push for .500! Let's Go Bucs.

kwaghjewkl;g

I don't think I've ever been this mad at a game. The last two nights have been disgusting. I don't even want to think about it. You all know what happened, if you didn't you wouldn't be reading this stupid blog... go read someone else's, I'm done til we win again.

Uh-Oh!

The Pirates are once again seriously flirting with .500 as they go into interleague play just ONE GAME AWAY. Unfortunately, the Pirates have been the worst interleague team in the majors since they started it back in 1997 (I think). The players and coaches however sound confident that it will be different this year with their deeper bench. Jason Michaels, Chris Gomez, and Doug Mientkiewicz have all been great off the bench this year and all have American League experience. I do see the Pirates fairing better in interleague this year, although they would be hardpressed to have a winning record in it. The Pirates will face the Orioles, White Sox, Blue Jays, Yankees, and Rays in the next 3 weeks. All of these teams are at .500 or above, except the Orioles who are one game below. The Pirates and Orioles will face off tomorrow to kick off the interleague play for the Bucs. The Pirates will send their recent "ace" to the mound in Phil Dumatrait to face off again Brian Burrres, who's numbers are not too impressive this year. Burres is 4-5 with a 4.96 ERA. Dumatrait is only 3-3, although the Pirates are like 7-2 in games that he starts, doesn't make much sense to me... idk that number must be wrong somehow. haha. Well I am very anxious to see the Pirates perform in interleague play, and I will be going to 2 of the Yankees games :). LETS GO BUCS

Relief.

After 2 well-played games, the Pirates sit at the same spot as they did when I last posted, 2 games back from .500. Tuesday's loss was devastating as the Pirates played so well and fought so hard throughout the game, but they ran out of luck in the top of the 9th when Lastings Milledge ran into a 2-run homer to win the game for the Nationals. Wednesday night was a different story, thankfully. Ian Snell pitched fantastically, finally, going 6 innings allowing 1 run and striking out 6. The Pirates won the game 3-1 and Matt Capps notched his 16th save of the season, so we don't have to worry about Matt Capps at all, not like we ever did. Tomorrow I'll be attending the game, as the Pirates send Tom Gorzelanny to the hill. Tom will try to follow Snell and get his act together and get the Pirates 1 game away from .500 as they head into interleague play, where they have played absolutely dismally in the last couple years. Interleague play has really done the Pirates in, as they have normally taken a respectable record into it, and came out with an awful record. Let's hope this year is different, although we face a tough interleague schedule. Let's Go Bucs!

In Good Shape

The Pirates did what I wanted against the Diamondbacks, taking 2 out of 4. They lost the first two, not too bad of a thing considering they faced Brandon Webb and Danny Haren, but they did their business against Doug Davis and Randy Johnson, winning Sunday and Monday to pull within 2 games of .500 going into a 3 game series against the National League's 2nd worst team, the Washington Nationals (who are ahead of the Colorado Rockies by half a game). The Pirates will send Paul Maholm, Ian Snell, and Tom Gorzelanny to the hill. Maholm has been very good at home, and I would expect that to continue tonight, Ian Snell has shown some good signs in his last couple starts, including striking out 9 in 5(?) innings. Tom Gorzelanny is making small steps as well, although it would not be a surprise to see him get lit up again. All-in-all, I think the Pirates have a great shot at a sweep here, but taking 2 out of 3 would satisfy me. I think our best chance to win is tonight, so if we don't we could be in some trouble. A sweep puts the Pirates at 34-33 and makes it a 7-3 homestand. Let's Go Bucs!

Done With The Central

Well the Pirates have just completed their stretch of 22 straight games against the National League Central, coming out with a respectable record of 11-11. The Pirates have gotten excellent starts from Duke and Maholm the last two nights, and they have (like they so often do) translated into wins. The Pirates won 5-2 yesterday (I was there) and 4-3 tonight, Matt Capps earning a save in each game. Duke went 7.1 innings and Maholm (who is always good at home) went 8 innings and threw under 90 pitches. This is what the Pirates need from all of their starters. Imagine if Snell and Gorzelanny were pitching like they did last year, this team could be well over .500 if you ask me. I mean the last 3 in our rotation have been solid this year, and recently they have been better than average, although Maholm is shaky on the road and Dumatrait has shown he cannot go real deep into most games. Duke has been going out there and giving the team a chance to win the game in every one of his starts, although he has not had one stand-out amazing start, but that's fine with me. Snell and Gorzelanny are supposed to be providing those great starts, but between the two they only have 1 of those starts, Snell in his 2nd start of the year. If those guy scan get going SOMEHOW, and this team keeps hitting the ball above average, again I say, we can win some games. In probably the biggest news of the day for the Pirates, we selected Pedro Alvarez in the first round of the first-year players draft. They also got a righty from Fresno state in the second round with huge upside, and a steal of a shortstop in the 3rd round. I was very pleased with the Pirates performance in the draft and on the field today, it was a perfect day all around. Now we face one of the best teams in the national league and arguably the best pitcher in the National League tomorrow in Brandon Webb. After that we will have 3 more games against the Diamondbacks, part of a 4 game set where we will see Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Doug Davis, and Randy Johnson. This will truly put the Pirates bat to the test, but they have always played well at home, and hopefully we can squeak out 2 wins in this series.