The Pirates’ road trip began EXACTLY the same way their home stand ended: with an embarrassingly dreadful 3-game series against a division foe. This time, it was the Houston Astros.
Friday, April 23: The Pirates once again struggled to score runs against Astros’ starter Roy Oswalt, and Houston did just enough to notch a win in the first battle between the two teams of the season. Oswalt went 7 innings, while giving up 2 earned runs on 4 hits on his way to his second win of this young season. Paul Maholm, his on-mound opponent, also went 7 innings, but wasn’t quite as sharp for the duration of his appearance, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits, losing his second game of the year.
Jeff Keppinger doubled in the 3rd inning, driving in one run, and Carlos Lee and Pedro Feliz added a double a-piece in the 6th, giving the Astros a 4-0 lead. The Buccos responded the next inning with a 2-run homerun from Garrett Jones and a solo shot from Jeff Clement. Still, it wasn’t enough, and the Astros held on for the 4-3 win.
Saturday, April 24: For the 5th game in a row and the 2nd in as many days against Houston, the Pirates severely struggled to score. This time it was against Wandy Rodriguez, who last 7.1 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits, tallying his first win of the season. Jason Jaramillo smashed a solo shot in the 7th inning, while Andy LaRoche added 2 hits, but the Pirates 7 total hits were scattered across the 9 innings, and the timely inning from earlier in the season was, once again, non-existent on this night.
The Buccos’ chance of a successful start from a pitcher diminished with 2 outs in the first inning, as call-up Chris Jakubauskas was hit in the head by a line drive off of Lance Berkman’s bat. The Pirates drained their bullpen in response, utilizing 5 pitchers on their way to a 5-2 loss. Pedro Feliz, Hunter Pence, and Tommy Manzella tallied 2 hits each and the Astros, once again, outlasted the Pirates for their 2nd straight victory.
Sunday, April 25: The Pirates put out a disappointing effort for the 3rd straight game in Houston, this time notching 14 hits, but scoring only 3 runs, losing for the 6th straight time. The Bucs scattered runs in the 2nd, 6th, and 8th innings, but the firepower wasn’t enough for them to keep pace with the suddenly high-powered Astros offense. Andy LaRoche continued his hot streak after returning from injury, going 4-4 with 2 RBI, while Andrew McCutchen had 3 hits, and Ryan Doumit and Jeff Clement had a pair of knocks each.
Charlie Morton lost again, falling to 0-4, with seemingly no hope to doing anything productive on the mound. He lasted only 3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 5 hits, slating his ERA at 16.20. Ugh. Brian Bass and Brian Burres relieved Morton with just as disappointing results, giving up 2 runs each. In all, the Astros scored 10 hits on as many hits, including Carlos Lee’s 2-5 performance and Lance Berkman’s solo homerun in the 2nd.
The Pirates’ situation right now is terrible, to say the least. Their starters aren’t lasting more than 4 or 5 innings, while their offense is lucky to score 3 runs per night. The relief pitching hasn’t been terrible, but when asked to go more than a couple innings each, which is more than what they should be expected to do, the execution diminishes, the opposing offenses are making them pay for it.
The Pirates have now fallen to 7-11 and are on a 6 game losing streak. They now travel to Milwaukee for 3 games against a team who outscored them 36-1 in a series last week, followed by a road set with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Pirates need to finish these last 6 games of the road trip at .500, or this season may already be over.
Current Record: 7-11
And…As Always…Let’s Go Bucs!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment