Cueto. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	2	8	1	9
	8	12	0	8

Johnny Cueto.  He's apparently the Bronson Arroyo of 2010 for the Reds against the Pirates.  It wasn't until he was relieved in the 7th that the Pirates were able to score a run, an Aki Iwamura RBI single.

Charlie Morton.  Despite all the talk about his great "stuff" (and I hate that term), he has only been able to grind out a win in one game out of ten.  Granted, he hasn't had much help from the Pirate bats, but in seven out of his ten appearances he has given up 5 or more runs.  Everyone has bad days.  A few outings where he gives up a lot of runs would be okay at this point in the season, but not 70% of the time.  His ERA went up again after this game to 9.35.  On a good team he would have been gone long before now.  It's time to send him down to Indy or try and trade him (probably not a lot of offers at this point, but he might be worth a low draft pick from a bad team like Houston or Baltimore.  Someone probably still thinks his "stuff" will get him somewhere), and give Brad Lincoln a try in the big leagues.  If he doesn't work out right away, there's always Karstens to pick up a few games.

UPDATE: Morton has apparently been placed on the DL, and Steven Jackson has been called up from the St. Louis Rams.

The Pirates bats were quiet as usual, even though they did pick up 8 hits.  Clement and Cedeno combined for 5 of those hits, going 3 for 4 and 2 for 4 with a walk respectively.  As mentioned previously, Aki got a hit as a pinch hitter and extended his streak to 5 games.  I think he was really having problems with an injury which was hampering his ability to hit and field effectively.  Maybe now that he is apparently healthy we can start to see more of the Aki that was part of the Rays AL Championship team in 2008.  The only Bucco RBIs came from him and Cedeno.

Overall this series was a bust, as the Reds are really surging lately and the Pirates, well, they never seem to surge.  It's not going to get any better in Atlanta I fear, but the Cubs series after that seems promising.