I haven't picked on the Pirates recently. They have enough problems.
But after watching last nights game vs. Colorado, I felt I had to break my silence.
Once again, a starting pitcher was throwing a gem of a game. And once again, he had to leave the mound.
Paul Maholm rebounded from a series of mediocre starts by tossing seven scoreless innings Friday, giving up just five hits and one walk. The Pirates weren't doing much better against journeyman Rockies pitcher Jorge de la Rosa, but they had managed to scratch out a run.
Tyler Yates and John Grabow managed to contain Colorado in the eighth, but there might have been a collective groan around PNC Park when Matt Capps walked to the mound to being the ninth.
Sure enough, Ian Stewart led off the inning by bouncing a ball over the fence, then Brad Hawpe put one in the seats. (The photo above is Capps after the home run.) The Rockies tacked on an insurance run, then Colorado closer Houston Street struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth.
Capps now is 0-3 with an 8.18 ERA. Next time manager John Russell brings him in to close a game, he'll have some 'splainin' to do!
De la Rosa, by the way, has put up a stellar 3.16 ERA so far, but has an 0-3 record to show for it. For all the Coors Field effect, the Rockies aren't the bombers they used to be.
Up: You might not know to much about Zack Greinke, seeing as how he pitches for the Kansas City Royals. You might not even have known they still have a team in Kansas City. The Royals haven't made the playoffs since winning the 1985 World Series.
But the emergence of Greinke as the American League's best pitcher has sports commentators mentioning KC and baseball in the same sentence once again.
Greinke was loaded with potential when he arrived in the majors at age 20 in 2004. He put up respectable numbers as a rookie, and entered '05 with plenty of expectations.
What resulted was a 5-17 season and some personal issues that shelved Greinke for most of 2006. He came back in '07 to split time between the bullpen and rotation, and last year he put up some spectacular numbers for a Royal: 13-10, 3.47 ERA and 183 strikeouts in 202 1/3 innings.
Last night, Greinke beat Baltimore, 8-1. The run was earned, the fourth he's surrendered this season. In 60 innings. That gives him an ERA of 0.60.
His record went to 7-1 (his only loss, of course, was 1-0). So far, he's struck out 65 batters and walked 10. He has yet to give up a home run.
Anything can happen between now and October, but if Greinke remains healthy, Kansas City just might continue to play baseball longer this season than they have in the past 24 years.
Down: I stopped rooting for the Red Sox when they started paying out semi-Yankee-esque payrolls, but I always kind of liked David Ortiz.
So I'm sad to see Big Papi hit what looks to be the end of the road.
Sox manager Terry Francona reluctantly benched Ortiz after he took an 0-for-7 collar and left an incredible 12 runners stranded during a 12-inning loss to the Angels on Thursday.
That performance left Papi with a .208 batting average for the season. He has yet to hit a home run in 130 at bats.
Ortiz is 33, which on the surface doesn't seem that old. But his statistics have declined so precipitously since the middle of 2008 that observers can't help but wonder if he'll ever be more than a spot player again. He already is a designated hitter, and there's really no room in a starting lineup for a DH who can't hit.
The excuse usually given on Ortiz's behalf is that he doesn't have Manny Ramirez in the lineup to protect him anymore. But should that really be enough for Papi to lose his power stroke totally? For crying out loud, the man hit 142 home runs in the span of three seasons to become one of the most feared hitters in baseball.
There's been conjeture, considering Manny's recent problems ... well, you're not going to read it here.
Perhaps after a rest on the bench, Ortiz will get back on track. But that will come as a surprise.
Up: The San Diego Padres play in one of the worst ballparks for hitters, but that hasn't fazed Adrian Gonzalez.
The Padres' first baseman cracked his 15th homer of the season last night, in a 5-3 win over the Reds, extending his major-league lead in that department. Baseball fans love to extrapolate, so he's on a pace to hit 67 bombs for the season and make San Diego fans forget all about Nate Colbert.
Predictably, Gonzalez has done most of his damage on the road, hitting 11 home runs in just 21 games. If he played his home games in, say, Cincinnati's Great American Bandbox, he might be making baseball fans in general forget all about B. Lamar Bonds.
We'd sure like someone to do so!
The thing that struck me in that Buccos game was the lack of fire from Capps. I realize relievers have to be on somewhat of an even keel and to shrug off failure in a hurry. But it wasn't Capps' reaction to the game-losing homer that bothered me. After that, when a guy from the Rockies hit a dribbler down the first-base line, Capps fielded it and tagged the guy out. The runner thought Capps laid the tag on a bit too hard and started yelling at him. Even an amateur lip-readed could tell that the guy called Capps an MF-er, yet Capps didn't reply. The guy was still running his mouth when he was in the dugout, yet nothing from Capps. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to see a guy with enough fire in his belly not to take that stuff. The Pirates could probably win the "Nicest Guys in the League" award, and maybe that's part of their problem. On an unrelated matter, I went the drive-in last night and was listening during a Pirates rain delay to some guy on 104.7 - I think his name is Rocco DeMara - and if he isn't on the Pirates' payroll, he sure should be. Usually people get some sort of remuneration when they give someone else the treatment this guy gave Bob Nutting and the rest of the Pirates' "brain trust." It was the broadcasting equivalent of a lap dance, or worse.
ReplyDelete