The Pirates traveled to San Francisco to take on the Giants, a team who has basically owned them at their home stadium. Our battlin’ Buccos haven’t taken a game from them out west since September 2008, so it was an early welcomed challenge for our young, new look Pirates.
Monday, April 12: The Pirates’ pitching woes continued in Game 1 of the series against the Giants, who have owned the Bucs as of late. Monday night’s victim was Brian Burres, who was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis following word that scheduled starter Ross Olendorf’s back spasms forced him to sit and rest.
The nightmare for Burres began early, as he gave up 3 runs in the first winning off the bats of Mark DeRosa’s 2’run single and Bengie Molina’s RBI single. It didn’t get much better for Brian, as he only went 4 innings, giving up 6 runs on 8 hits, putting his teammates in too-big of a hole for any chance of a comeback. Walks continued to be an issue on Monday, as the four pitchers that took the mound for our Battlin’ Buccos, a total of 6 free passes were given to a Giants team that hits the face off the ball in their home ballpark. Bengie Molina demolished the Pirates’ pitching, going 4-4 with 1 HR and 4 RBI.
Aki Iwamura seems to have found his comfort zone with this lead-off role, going 2-5 with 2 RBI. Andy LaRoche also chipped with 2 hits, while Ronny Cedeno added an RBI-single. Unfortunately, that was the limit of the Buccos’ offense. The team’s big guns were virtually non-existent. Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, Lastings Milledge, and Ryan Doumit hit a combined 1/15, certainly not the recipe for a series-opening win.
Tuesday, April 13: For as bad as Garrett Jones was on Monday, he was that much better on Tuesday night, leading the Pirates on both the offensive and defensive end on their way to a 6-5 win in San Francisco. Jones went 3-4 with 2 RBI, including a run-scoring double in the first and an RBI single in the 8th. He ended the game with a dramatic leaping, game-saving, Pablo Sandoval-robbing snag in the 9th.
Aki Iwamura continued his hot-hitting streak, crushing a homer to dead-center in the 3rd on his way to another multi-hit evening. Andy LaRoche also had a long-ball in the 9th, while Andrew McCutchen, Ryan Doumit, and Ryan Church each added a hit. This was an important win for the Buccos, avoiding their first official losing streak of the season, and setting the stage for a big rubber match on Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday, April 14: So maybe somebody forgot to tell the Pirates that the game started in the afternoon, because they were certainly not ready to play when the first pitch came calling. The Pirates managed just 3 hits in the entire game, two from Lastings Milledge and one from Ronny Cedeno, while the rest of the lineup looked hungover and uninterested in competing, which looked all too familiar to last season.
Charlie Morton had his second straight horrid performance in as many starts to open the season. Wednesday’s line read 6 innings, 6 runs on 8 hits, adjusting his Season ERA to 13.50. Yuck. Relievers Jack Taschner and Joel Hanrahan made quality appearances in the 7th and 8th innings respectively, but the game had already been decided.
The Giants did their damage in two separate innings. Aubrey Huff smashed an inside-the-park homerun in the 2nd (which seems to happen to the Pirates more than any other team), followed by Eli Whiteside’s 3-run HR later in the inning. Aaron Rowand further sealed the deal in the 5th with a 2-run homer of his own, extending the lead to 6-0, which would eventually be the final score.
While the Pirates did avoid the sweep, it’s difficult to be satisfied with a series in which two games were completely dominated by the Buccos’ opponent. 2010 sees our struggles on the road continue, with the road trip ending at 2-4. Granted, the Diamondbacks and Giants have both owned the Pirates as of late, so to avoid a total series domination in each of these cities is a step in the right direction, but overall, this was not a satisfying roadtrip. In the six games on this trip, the Buccos were outscored 47-19…and we thought the pitching was our strength.
The Pirates are sure to be happy to return to PNC Park, starting tomorrow with a 3-game set against the Cincinnati Reds. Mr. Zane Heiple and myself will have coverage of the games on Saturday and Sunday, so be sure to check out the latest Fans From The Stands!
Current Record: 4-5
And…As Always…Let’s Go Bucs!!!
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