Double Down. Bucs SWEPT

	R	H	E	LOB
	7	11	2	9
	8	15	0	12

Charlie Morton. No matter how much this guy sucks, the Pirates always want to give him and his Legendary Great Stuff another chance. I guess at this point it doesn't really matter though.

He got rocked for 3.1 IP, allowing 9 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and 1 HR. That was all the Brewers needed to cement yet another disappointing road series for the Buccos. The Pirates have just 13 wins on the road this year.

Delwyn Young, playing RF this game, went 2 for 5 in the 2 spot, as Andrew McCutchen had the day off as a starter. Doumit went 2 for 2 with 2 walks, getting on base in every AB. Lastings Milledge went 2 for 3 in LF. Tabata had his first hitless outing in his last 7 games. It was homer or bust in this one, as all runs for the Pirates came by way of the long ball. Solo shots were hit by Doumit and Delwyn Young, while Neil Walker had a 2-run blast.

The Race For Last™

Arizona: Lost 9-7.
Baltimore: Won 1-0.
Cleveland: Lost 6-2.
Seattle: Won 2-1.

The current standings:

Team	W	L
Pittsburgh	43	87
Baltimore	48	83
Seattle	51	79
Arizona	52	79
Cleveland	53	77

Eyes on the prize, Bucco fans.

Blown. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	2	7	1	6
	7	10	0	5

The Bucs had the Brewers down by 2 going into the 6th, when J-Mac gave up a run. Not too bad, as he got out of the inning with the lead. But the next inning a meltdown occurred. He gave up 5 more runs in the 7th before Russell finally decided it would be a good idea to pull him. Chris Resop allowed another to make it a 6-run inning for the Beers.  After that it was all over.

J-Mac went 6.1 IP, allowing 7 H, 6 R/ER, 2 BB, 0 HR, and had 7 Ks. Chan Ho Park struck out 2 in the 8th.

Jose Tabata continues to hit the ball well, going 2 for 3 tonight. His average is now .313, putting him at least in the conversation for Rookie of the Year. Neil Walker and Lastings Milledge had doubles, and Chris Snyder hit his 12th homer in the 5th inning.

The Race For Last™

Arizona: Won 6-0.
Baltimore: Won 3-1.
Cleveland: Won 15-4.
Seattle: Lost 6-3.

The current standings:

Team	W	L
Pittsburgh	43	85
Baltimore	46	83
Seattle	49	78
Arizona	51	78
Cleveland	52	76

Eyes on the prize, Bucco fans.

Rocco game. Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	1	6	0	8
	2	4	1	2

The Buccos avoid a sweep by the New York Baseball Mets with the first nice outing by Zach Duke in almost a month. Ryan Doumit made a horrible throw early in the game after a bunt that set up the only run for the Mets, but luckily it didn't come back to bite the Pirates in the ass. Why Doumit isn't permanently warming the bench by now I have no idea. He's good for maybe one hit a game, exactly what you need in a pinch-hitter.

Zach Duke pitched 7.0 strong innings, giving up just 5 hits, 1 R/ER, 2 walks, and 0 HRs, while striking out 5 Mets. Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan came in to relieve him and 1-hit the Mets.

Not much offense as usual, but it was enough. Pedro went 2 for 3, and Jose Tabata and Lastings Milledge both hit solo home runs, Milledge's went in the Pirates' bullpen. Hopefully this damn platoon with Doumit is over.

The Race For Last™

Arizona: Lost 1-0.
Baltimore: Lost 6-4.
Cleveland: Lost 8-1.
Kansas City: Won 3-2 in 10.
Seattle: Lost 10-0.

The current standings:

Team	W	L
Pittsburgh	41	83
Baltimore	44	81
Arizona	49	76
Seattle	49	75
Cleveland	50	74
Kansas City	53	71

Eyes on the prize, Bucco fans.

Pedro! Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	7	9	0	6
	8	14	2	13

The Pirates would go up, but the Rockies would come back, so this one went to extra frames.  In the top of the 10th, the Rockies went up 7-5, and it seemed like this one would be over. But then Pedro happened.



Walkoff homers kick ass.

Ross Ohlendorf went 6.0 IP, giving up 4 H, 2 R / 1 ER, 1 BB, and 6 Ks. But once again he was robbed of a win because of the terrible outing of Joel Hanrahan, who gave up 3 in the 9th. Sean Gallagher got the W, he is now 2-0.

Andrew McCutchen went 2 for 6, Jose Tabata went 2 for 5 with a walk, and Pedro Alvarez went 3 for 6 with 3 RBIs. Doubles were hit by Milledge, Tabata, and McCutchen, and homers were hit by Chris Snyder (with 2 on), Garrett Jones (solo), and Pedro (with 2 on).

The Race For Last™

Baltimore: Lost 4-2.
Arizona: Won 6-5.
Seattle: Lost 2-1.
Cleveland: Lost 7-2.
Kansas City: Won 2-1.

The current standings:

Team	W	L
Baltimore	36	74
Pittsburgh	39	71
Seattle	41	70
Arizona	43	68
Cleveland	47	64
Kansas City	47	63

Eyes on the prize, Bucco fans.

Super Hang On. Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	6	11	1	10
	7	11	0	5

This win nearly wasn't, as the Pirates allowed the Reds to score 5 runs after going up 7-1.  But Joel Hanrahan hung on in the 9th to record his first save as a Bucco.

The Pirate bats awoke in a big way after going into hibernation mode for the past 4 games.  Neil Walker went 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs and a double, which bounced of the Clemente wall to score the 3 Bucs on the bags. Jose Tabata went 2 for 4 with an RBI, and Lastings Milledge went 2 for 4 with a double. Chris Snyder got the ball rolling when he ripped a nice single to center which scored Pedro and Milledge.

A scary moment early on when Cutch got hit in the neck by a pitch by Mike Leake.  He was taken out of the game and rush to the hospital for x-rays, which came back negative. He's officially listed as Day-to-Day.  Maholm responded by beaning Leake in the leg when he came to bat, resulting in warnings for both benches.

The Race For Last remains largely unchanged, as all 4 of the bottom teams recorded a win. The current standings:

1. Baltimore
2. Pittsburgh (4 GB)
3. Seattle & Arizona (7 GB)
5. Cleveland (12 GB)

Another blowout. Bucs SWEPT

	R	H	E	LOB
	1	10	0	9
	9	14	1	6

Steelers training camp has begun, and most people in Pittsburgh have forgotten about the Pirates for another year.  That's probably a good thing, as they scored just 2 runs in the 28 innings of this series.

Things started off well enough, with Lastings Milledge getting a triple, and Ronny Cedeno bringing him home, but that's as far as it got. Zach Duke imploded in the 5th, allowing 5 runs and putting the game out of reach. Steven Jackson wasn't much better in the 8th, allowing 3 more runs. The Pirates' pitchers only struck out 2 batters all day. Duke gave up 7 H, 6 R, 1 BB, 1 K, and 1 HR in 5.0 IP.

Jose Tabata went 2 for 4, extending his hitting streak to 12 games and improving his average to .299. Lastings Milledge also went 2 for 4 with a triple. Argenis Diaz got a hit as a pinch-hitter in his first at-bat since 20-0.

The Bucs now hope to have better success next series when they head back home to take on the Cincinnati Communists in a 3-game series.

10 innings of silence. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	0	5	1	6
	1	9	0	5

I'm pretty pleased to see that the Pirates' pitchers were able to keep the Cardinals' bats quiet for 9 innings. I'm pretty disappointed to see them equal that quietness with their own bats. But once it went into extra innings, I knew they had no chance.

Jeff Karstens's best outing of the year was completely wasted because the Pirates couldn't get anything going offensively.  He pitched 6.0 innings, allowing no runs, just 7 hits (all singles), no walks, and 2 Ks. He was pulled after 6 not because he was getting tired, but because there was a concerning play where stepped on 1st to record the out and seemed to tweak his ankle a bit. He threw only 69 pitches.

Joel Hanrahan had an excellent  inning of work in the 9th, striking out the side. Lopez was not as lucky in the 10th.

Erik Kratz had an excellent outing defensively, as he caught 3 Cardinals trying to steal. Each throw was perfectly placed, something we haven't seen from a Bucco catcher in quite a while.

The best offensive player was Lastings Milledge, who went 2 for 4. Jose Tabata got a hit to extend his streak to 10 games, and 13 of his last 14. There were no extra-base hits.

Okay, this is getting a little crazy. Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	3	7	0	7
	15	18	2	6

In the last 4 out of 5 games, the Bucs have scored 9+ runs. As mentioned in the last post, output like that over a 5 game stretch hasn't happened for the Pirates since 1971. What does all this mean?  Just that it's really hard to sustain production like this for long, but it should definitely be enjoyed while it lasts.

This game started off kind of slow, with the Pirates and Brewers trading leads for the first 3 innings.  The Brewers scored 1 run in each of the first 3 innings, while the Bucs scored 2 in the bottom of the 1st.  After 3 innings, it wasn't looking that great for the home team, with Randy Wolf retiring 9 in a row after the Bucs put up their two runs in the 1st. But then the Bucs started Battling. Lastings Milledge hits a long double to score Garrett Jones.  Then Ronny Cedeno hits a perfect bunt and reach 1st safely, scoring Pedro in the process.  Tabata hits a single which scores Milledge.  And the Delwyn Young comes to the plate.  He hits a 3-run homer. Suddenly the Bucs have a commanding 8-3 lead after scoring 6 in the 4th.

But they weren't done yet.  In the 5th, Pedro hits his 7th homer of the year, scoring Garrett Jones in the process.  In the 6th, Delwyn Young nets his 5th RBI of the game, scoring Zach Duke.  Then Neil Walker hits a sacrifice Ground into Double Play (yeah, weird), scoring Tabata.  It's 12-3, and it's only the 6th inning.  At this point we were thinking revenge for 20-0.  It came fairly close to that.  Andy LaRoche pinch hits a single to score Lastings Milledge in the 7th, and Neil Walker singles to score Ronny Cedeno, also in the 7th. 14-3.

Pedro comes to the plate in the 8th. He's already contributed a ton to this game, can he do more? Yes.  He hits another bomb towards the Clemente Wall, which doinks off the foul post about 2/3rds of the way up for his 4th homer in the last 2 days.  15-3. At this point the Pirates were showing mercy.  Sean Gallagher was in for the last few innings, and he got a chance to bat for the first time since probably ever. He gets the job done in the 9th.

Zach Duke went 6+ IP, 6 H, 3 R / 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, and 1 HR.  Bullpen of Donnelly (1 IP) and Gallagher (2 IP) came in for 3 innings of 1-hit, 3 K baseball.

Jose Tabata went 2 for 4 with a walk and an RBI; Delwyn Young went 3 for 4 with a walk, a homer, and 5 RBIs; Neil Walker went 2 for 5 with 2 RBIs; Garrett Jones went 2 for 4 with a walk; Pedro went 3 for 5 with 3 RBIs and two homers; Lastings Milledge went 2 for 5 with an RBI; Ronny Cedeno went 2 for 5 with an RBI, and Zach Duke got a hit, going 1 for 3.  Doubles were hit by Walker and Milledge, while homers were hit by Delwyn Young and Pedro (twice).

The return of No Hitting. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	3	3	0	1
	1	6	0	7

And so the Pirates fell back down to Earth.  Not exactly unexpected.  It was really annoying to see them lose after pitching another 3-hitter.  Jeff Karstens had a great outing despite giving up 2 homers, one of which scored 2 runs.  He was perfect through 4 innings and ended up striking out 6, but home runs by Prince Fatass and Weeks meant that he still ended up with the loss as the Pirates settled back into Anemic Offense Mode.

Cedeno continues to hit well, going 2 for 4 with a triple, and Neil Walker also went 2 for 4 with a double.  Lastings Milledge now has a 7-game hitting streak, while Pedro Alvarez has reached base safely in 7 straight games, drawing 3 walks in this one. He has reached base in all but one contest in the month of July.

The Complete Game Shutout. Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	0	3	0	2
	9	19	1	9

Okay, so after 7 straight games of suck against Houston, the Pirates suddenly turn into the Yankees against them?  Whatever, I'll take it.

Paul Maholm pitched a 3-hit complete game, striking out 1 and walking none.  Obviously the best game of his career, as he's never had a shutout CG before.  His last CG came on April 27, 2008.  This is the first CG for the Pirates all season.

Meanwhile, the offense exploded for the second time in a row, putting up even more hits than they had in the previous game. Every position player had a hit, and out of them only Pedro and Cedeno did not have an RBI, which is odd, because Cedeno went 4 for 4 on the day. Other multi-hitters were Tabata (3 for 5), Walker (2 for 5), Pedro (2 for 5), Doumit (3 for 5), and Milledge (2 for 4). Doubles were hit by Doumit (twice), Cedeno (3 times), Church (who came in when Cutch was injured making a diving catch), and Tabata.  Garrett Jones hit the first multi-run homer for the Bucs in over a month, scoring Tabata.

To expect this kind of offensive surge to continue would be foolish, but it certainly shows what the Pirates are capable of doing.  I hope this is a boost of confidence for them.  The Pirates have now won 3 straight series at home.  If only their road contests went as well as their home ones, they might actually be in contention.

Fireworks. Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	6	7	2	4
	12	17	0	8

This game had it all, highs and lows.  Ross Ohlendorf got yanked after just 1.1 IP, giving up 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, and 1 HR.  Carrasco came in for 3.1 innings of long relief, giving up 1 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, and 0 HR. The rest of the bullpen (Lopez, Donnelly, Meek, Hanrahan, Dotel) had a combined one-hitter, adding 3 more Ks in the process.

The offense, meanwhile, awoke in a huge way.  After going up 3-0 in the first inning, the lead was lost as the Astros came back 4-3.  But the Pirates came back in the bottom of the 2nd, making it 5-4.  And then it was the Astros turn to come back in the 5th, scoring 2 runs to take the lead again 6-5.  But in the bottom, the Pirates finally took the lead back for good, going up 7-6, and then adding 2 more in the 6th and 3 more in the 8th.

Every spot in the order had at least 1 hit, and the 2-8 spots all had two or more.  Jones, Cedeno, Tabata, Alvarez, and Walker all had doubles.  Neil Walker went 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs. Tabata and Milledge also had 2 RBIs each.  Even Ryan Church had a nice AB as a pinch hitter, scoring newly called up catcher Erik Kratz.  Was his calling up what sparked the Pirates offense in this game? Or was it the sold-out crowd atmosphere on fireworks night that helped to motivate the team? I don't know, but it was refreshing to not see a team steal bases on us at will, and it was great to see a guy like Kratz, a perennial minor leaguer, finally get a shot at the big leagues and do so well in his debut (2 for 5 with an RBI and a run).

As fir the other aspects of the game, Cutch stole another base, giving him 21 steals on the year, tying him in second place on the NL list with Nyjer Morgan.  Lastings Milledge also made a nice catch.

So the Pirates have the somewhat daunting task of winning the series against the noted Pirate-killer Roy Oswalt.  If the Pirates that show up look anything like the Pirates of this game, they might just have a chance.  No guarantees, as always.

Canyon, Part IV. Bucs SWEPT.

	R	H	E	LOB
	5	9	0	6
	6	11	0	7

And so the Pirates go into the All-star break on a 6-game losing streak.  It's disappointing, but not exactly unexpected.  What was a little unexpected was the utter collapse of the bullpen in this series.  In two out of 3 games the Pirates were leading in the 9th, only to blow the save and lose.  I can only hope the break will help them get back on track.  No guarantees as always, though.

Ronny Cedeno was the only Pirate with more than one hit, one of which was a double.  One good thing, however, is that home runs are coming more often than usual for this team.  Lastings Milledge has apparently shaken off his first half jitters, as he hit his 3rd of the season and his 2nd in the last two games he's played in.

Pedro Alvarez continues to show that calling him up was a smart decision.  He hit his 3rd home run of the season, and has a hit in 11 out of his last 13 games.  His average in July is .289, much improved from his .152 average in June.

Brad Lincoln continues to be a pleasant surprise, if not always on the mound, then definitely at the plate.  His average through 13 at-bats is .308.  His pitching line wasn't bad either, going 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, and 2 HR.  Other than giving up 2 HR, I'd take that line any day.  Milwaukee is a hitter's park though, as evidenced by the amount of homers the Pirates have been getting there lately.

And so the All-star break begins, and we have a reprieve from sucky baseball.  Halfway home.

Blown. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	4	10	1	8
	5	8	0	6

I suppose it had to happen eventually.  The Pirates' great streak of unbeatens when leading after 8 innings is over.  Some major ineptitude by Ryan Doumit, who most of the time seems unable to catch a ball (which, as a "catcher" is pretty important).  Then there was the throw down to 2nd (where there was no play) that went into Center Field.  Ugh.  Hate losing like this, after Maholm, who has been imitating Pitt's Gilbert Brown by alternating good and bad games, had a great outing, going 7 innings and allowing 3 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 HR, and 4 Ks.  Evan Meek gave up the walkoff hit, and as a result his ERA is 1.11, the highest it's been since April 17th.

McCutchen, Tabata, and Milledge all had 2 hits, and Cutch and Clutch got a homer apiece.  Cedeno, Alvarez, and Jones all had doubles.  It's nice to see more extra base hits, and eventually that will turn into some runs.  RISP was just 2 for 11 in this one, however.

Damn you, Jaramillo. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	2	8	4	8
	3	3	1	5

As if failing to catch an easily playable foul ball for the 3rd out in the 8th--which led to the game-winning home run 2 pitches later--wasn't bad enough, in the top of the 9th, Jaramillo grounded into a double play which killed almost any chance of the Pirates coming back.  Then there was that whole "Tabata's single hits Pedro in the leg for the final out" thing.  WTF.  Ohlendorf's 6 inning, 2 hit, 2 run, 0 ER effort was completely wasted.  The Pirates nearly tripling Oakland's hitting efforts and Lastings Milledge finally getting his first home run of the season.  Wasted.  Just like this whole season.  Thank God interleague is finally over.  Only 32 losses to go...

Blown. Bucs SWEPT

	R	H	E	LOB
	5	14	1	6
	6	12	1	8

The Pirates found yet another way to lose a baseball game, having leads of 4-0 and 5-1 blown.  Not even having one of the best hitting days in weeks could help them win this game.  Only Ryan Church was held off the bases, and while Cutch's hitless streak continues, he was able to score a run after taking a walk.  5 Pirates had 2 or more hits: Jose Tabata (3 for 5 with a run), Garrett Jones (3 for 4 with a run and an RBI, Ryan Doumit (2 for 4 with a run and an RBI), Lastings Milledge (2 for 4), and Bobby Crosby (2 for 4).  Jeff Karstens had yet another solid outing with 3 runs (2 earned) allowed, but the bullpen let him down.  Evan Meek, arguably the best reliever in the league and certainly the best on the Pirates, let 2 runs score to tie the game.  He didn't get the call on a strikeout, but he still had an opportunity to leave the inning intact.  In the 9th, new reliever Steven Jackson let the walkoff single that won the game for the Rangers, and the Bucs were swept. Sigh.

Channeling the 1960 Pirates. Bucs WIN

	R	H	E	LOB
	4	9	0	7
	6	9	0	11

This is the first time in a long while that the Pirates have been able to get hits almost the whole way through the line up.  Jose Tabata had an off night, going hitless for only the second time since he's been called up, and ending a 3-game hitting streak.  The rest of the Pirates position players lit up the Indians pitchers, to the tune of 9 hits and 8 walks drawn.  Andrew McCutchen had another explosive day, going 2 for 2, drawing 3 walks and scoring 4 runs.  Garrett Jones went 1 for 4 with a walk, scored a run, and drove in a run, extending his hit streak to 10 games. Lastings Milledge went 3 for 4 with a walk and was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.  He also drove in 4 runs.  Pedro Alvarez finally got his first Major League hit, and it was a big one.  In the 5th inning, he hit a ground rule double over the low left field wall to score Garrett Jones and give the Pirates a 5-1 lead at that point.  Neil Walker and Ryan Doumit also had a hit apiece.  Even Bobby Crosby, while not getting a hit, was nonetheless able to get on base twice by drawing a pair of walks.  Overall, this was a very productive day for the Pirates' offense.  You could see it in the face of the players during the shots of the dugout in the later innings.  They were relaxed, confident, and joking around with each other.  It's great to see that, as what you normally see when looking at the dugout is a bunch of stony faces that can't wait for the game to be over.  This is the first 6+-run game for the Pirates in what feels like months, but that's only because it was the last game prior to this one that the Pirates got a W.  Speaking of Ws, Jeff Karstens took only the 2nd W for a Pirates starter since Zach Duke got one way back on May 18th against Roy Halladay.  Still a fan of Jeff Karstens.  He hasn't had a truly terrible game as a starter since May 2nd against the Dodgers.

This game was a glimpse of the future of the Pirates.  Remember this one in September, when the Pirates are closing out another losing season.  The 1960 champion Pirates, who were in attendance for a celebration of that team, all agreed that this team has the potential to explode in production without warning, similar to what happened in 2008 for Tampa Bay.  Maybe not next year, but it's not far away.

Rally Falls Short. Bucs SWEPT

	R	H	E	LOB
	5	11	0	6
	4	9	0	5

Always tough to see a late rally fall short, especially when it could turn around a losing streak the size of Texas.  The meat of the order continues to hit decently, while the 6 through 9 spots does not.  Neil Walker, Andrew McCutchen, and Lastings Milledge all had a pair of hits, while Jones and Tabata each contributed 1.  Walker, Cutch, Jones, and Milledge each had an RBI, while Tabata and Walker combined to score 3 runs.  After the 5th spot, however, the batting continues to be sterile.  The 6-9 spots were responsible for all but 1 of the Pirates 9 Ks and had just 1 hit, an Andy LaRoche pinch-hit double that probably should have been caught by the CF.  Pedro had a particularly difficult time, striking out 3 times.  He'll get better as the season wears on.  Ross Ohlendorf still does not have a win.

And so the streak moves to 11.  Maybe a rivalry series against the slightly less sucky Indians will break it.

Double Digits. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	7	11	0	6
	2	5	6	3

Six errors.  Seven runs allowed.  Boooo.  Pedro's up.  Jose hits his first dinger.  Woooo.

A night of the highest highs and the lowest lows.

The core is finally all up now.  That's a good thing.  Are they all going to start clicking immediately?  Hell no.  Not everyone is Andrew McCutchen.  But I'd much rather see them getting some experience now than in August.  Get used to the way the game is played in the big leagues.  And come out strong next year.

Six errors is the most by the Pirates in a long time, but who cares, they weren't going to win this one anyway.  Pedro was shaky at third, but I'm chalking that up to nervousness because of playing in his first big league game.  He went 0 for 2 with a walk, a strikeout, and a fly to left that almost dropped in for a single.  His walk led to the other of the 2 Pirate runs.  Not a bad start in my book.  He'll get better the more he plays at this level.

As for the other Pirates, Lastings Milledge was the only player to get 2 hits in the game, his second hit being a double that moved Pedro to 3rd and set up Bobby Crosby's sacrifice grounder to get the Bucs on the board for the first time.  Other than that the list of interesting hits is pretty short.

So the losing streak moves to 10 games.  As I've already given up on this season and am merely watching to see the young players progress, this doesn't bother me that much.  We've been here before, and we'll be here again.  You can tell that the players are losing confidence, though.  They really need a win, if only to prove to themselves that it's still possible for them to win a game.

Debuts. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	5	12	0	10
	7	10	2	6

It was not for a lack of hits that the Pirates lost this game.  In fact, they out-hit the Nats by 2.  Five Pirates had 2 or more hits: Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, Garrett Jones, Lastings Milledge (3), and Brad Lincoln (!).  The Pirates' bats with RISP continues to be a problem, however.  In this contest, they had 16 such opportunities, but only were able to get hits in 4 of them.  Andy LaRoche is particularly terrible in this regard.  He was 0 for 3 today, and his YTD average with RISP is .229.  This number is misleading, as he was actually hitting decently early in the season.  I can't count how many times I've seen him up to bat with a runner on and 1 out, only to ground into a double play and end the inning.  Which is why for the life of me I can't understand why Russell had him batting 5th in this game.  OK, I can understand him being ahead in the order over Cedeno and the pitcher Brad Lincoln, and maybe even Jason Jaramillo since he doesn't have that much experience batting.  But why was he placed ahead of Lastings Milledge, who has a hit in all but 1 game this month?  It boggles the mind.

Speaking of Brad Lincoln, it was nice to see him and Jose Tabata finally get a shot at the bigs.  Lincoln pitched well for his first time out, I think.  He's no Stephen Strasburg, but hopefully he'll be a quality Maholm-type player and the #3 or so in the rotation once guys like Jameson Taillon and hopefully Stetson Allie make it to the top.  His 5 ER was mostly due to some defensive blunders, although he did allow a 2-run homer off Adam Dunn, who I'm steadily growing to hate.  Lincoln didn't put too many runners on base (7 hits, 2 walks), and had 3 Ks in his 6 innings.  Those numbers mostly reflect his nervousness at pitching in the majors for the first time I believe, and once he calmed down a bit he started to really get his great curveball going.  Hopefully next time he'll be able to pitch a good game the whole way through.  One weird note is that he went 2 for 3 at the plate and drove in a run, frankly amazing numbers for a pitcher in any game, and even more so for a first-timer.  Not expecting this to happen again, but it's good to know that he can connect for a hit once in a while. That's more than most pitchers can say.  Lincoln left the game with the score tied at 5, but a bad hop off Carrasco's shoe allowed the Nats to go up for good, and Donnelly let in another in the 8th.

Jose Tabata was nothing short of a beast.  His speed helped him beat the throw for an infield single twice, and he also drew a walk, making him 2 for 4 on the night.  Not bad for someone who wasn't putting up overwhelming numbers in AAA.  He did go down with some sort of injury in his 5th plate appearance, but hopefully it's just a cramp and not something more serious.  He probably won't play on Thursday, but hopefully he'll be back once interleague play starts up on Friday.

It pours. Bucs LOSE

	R	H	E	LOB
	4	7	1	10
	2	9	1	14

Slightly better this time, but the result is the same.  A good pitching effort is wasted by a lack of offense by the Bucs, even if Milledge and Church both had 3 hits.  This game wasn't on TV for unknown reasons.  I was kind of hoping that the rain would postpone the game, but it was merely delayed.  The Bucs streak of no rain-outs this season continues.  Charlie Morton only gave up 3 (!) runs, 2 in the second and a solo homer in the 3rd.  The Bucs rallied a bit in the 4th, scoring 2 off a Lastings Milledge triple and a Ronny Cedeno sac, but couldn't get anything going the rest of the game.

Very weird 9th.  Hanrahan strikes out the first two batters, and then loads the bases on walks.  A wild pitch third strike allows the runner to reach first and score a run.  John Russell is not happy with the call, as the Ump claimed that Jones's foot was off the bag on the throw.  Russell gets ejected for only the 2nd or so time in his career.

Nothing doing in the bottom.

GAME.