Friday, April 1, 2011

Recap: Walker's Big Salami. BUCS WIN.


team-spacer 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 inning-spacer R H E LOB
Pirates 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 0 0 score-spacer 6 7 1 7
Cubs 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 score-spacer 3 11 0 10

What a great way to open up the season. Still lacking in defense, but Kevin Correia appears to be a huge improvement in the pitching department over Zach Duke. If you're a Bucco fan right now, you're feeling optimistic about this season. Exactly how optimistic will vary from fan to fan. Almost no one is thinking winning season or better, but your win estimate may have jumped from say, 65 to 72. An opening day win is always good for morale. The whole season is ahead of us and we're atop the standings, if only for one day. As with every Bucco season for the past 18 years, there are many bad, ugly losses to come this season. But forget about that, because for right now the Pirates are number 1. The opening day winning streak stands at 5 going back to 2007's 10-inning victory in Houston.

There wasn't much going on early in this game. The Cubs scored a couple runs early, one off a throwing error by Pedro. The only highlights for the Bucs through 4 innings were a couple doubles by Cutch and Overbay. Ryan Doumit somehow threw out some dude at second base in the 2nd.

And then it happened. Doumit had a lead-off single in the 5th, Garrett Jones grounds out but moves the runner, Ronny Cedeno walks (!), Kevin Correia sac, and a Jose Tabata walk and suddenly the bases are loaded for Neil Walker with 2 outs. Big blast to right was gone.

4-2.

After that, it was all over for the Cubs. For some reason Dempster was still in the game in the 7th with way over 100 pitches thrown. A Walker double and a Cutch homer made him pay.

6-2.

Some joke named Darwin Barney (no, really) scored the final run for the Cubs in the 7th. Meek and Hanrahan shut the door in the 8th and 9th, and the Jolly Roger was raised.

  • No extra base hits for the Cubs in this game, solid.
  • Wrigley Field was the only stadium the Pirates had a winning record in last year. Off to a good start.
  • Only 1 error recorded by the Pirates, it felt more like 4 or 5. Whatever.
  • Walker and Cutch both went 2 for 4. As a result of his grand slam, Walker leads the NL in RBIs right now.
  • Correia went 6.0+; 7 Hits, 3 R/2 ER, 1 BB, and 3 Ks.
  • Correia got the Win (1-0), Veras and Meek got Holds, and Hanrahan got the Save.
  • 8 Ks for the Bucco pitching corps. 9 by the batting corps though.
  • Let's Go Bucs.

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