Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Bullpen Blunders. Bucs SWEPT


R
H
E
LOB
3
7
0
5
4
7
0
4


The one aspect of the Pirates that we as fans could point to and say, "well at least we have that," was our bullpen.  "As long as the starter can maintain the lead," we'd say, "our bullpen can win us the game on any given night."  Well, now the bullpen has blown two leads in a row.  The bullpen is not nearly as dominant now, in June, as they were in May.  And the Pirates continue to lose, and lose, and lose.  In other words, a pretty typical June for the Bucs.

Jeff Karstens out-dueled Mr. Nearly Perfect, Armando Galarraga, and through 7 innings, the Pirates had the 2-1 lead.  He had held the Tigers scoreless through 6 innings, allowing just 4 hits.  He did give up a solo home run in the 7th, but was able to escape with the lead intact.  After allowing a single to start the 8th, he was pulled in favor of Carrasco, and that's where things went south.  3 different pitchers (Carrasco, Lopez, and Dotel) couldn't get the 3rd out, and Dotel gave up the 3-run homer that gave the Tigers the lead for good.

Garrett Jones is looking like the home run machine he was last year.  He's hit 2 dingers in his last 2 games.  I hope this continues, as the Pirates are really hurting for runs this year.  Jones and Cutch both went 2 for 4 today, and it's nice to see Andrew finally getting back on track after his slump.

It's good to see Doumit back at catcher after that catastrophe on Saturday.  I have no idea why they had him playing 1st, and I hope I never see him there again.  Jones should be our everyday 1st baseman.  We need hitting, and we have plenty of bench players who can play RF (Delwyn Young, Ryan Church, Lastings Milledge).  Why sacrifice an extra good bat for a mostly defensive player such as Bobby Crosby?  Ideally, our position players should be Ryan Doumit C, Garrett Jones 1B, Neil Walker 2B, Ronny Cedeno SS, Andy LaRoche 3B (Pedro Alvarez when he finally gets called), Jose Tabata LF, Andrew McCutchen CF, and a rotating RF of Delwyn Young, Lastings Milledge, and Ryan Church.  But that's just my opinion.

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