Buc's Puke Game 1; Take 2

It's simple.

Game 1 - Blew it. Period.

Game 2 - About blew it. Got lucky.

Game 3 - No chance to blow it. Breezes.

At first, we all jumped on Matt Capps for blowing his 4th save of the year in game one when "Jr." took him yard. The next night, we got a little worried when he blew his 5th save in the 10th after Brandon Phillips singled in the tying run. Uh oh. Then we got our answer less than 24 hours later. Capps hit the DL with right shoulder bursitis and expected out 6-8 weeks. Ouch, I guess we can easily point the finger at the problem. It's a big hit to the Pirates bullpen, because there really is no other standout gas thrower with the ability to shit it down come the 9th inning. Other than the ability to throw a hard fastball, the Pirates lack a pitcher who has been as consistent as Capps in order to feel some sort of comfort going into that last inning with a lead. John Grabow and Tyler Yates are the only likely candidates and as I mention that, Yates may be the best candidate. Yates is the only other pitcher coming out of the bullpen that can top the high 90's with his 4 seam. Yates can throw some serious gas in the range of 97-98 mph and has some decent off speed stuff that may keep desperate hitters off balance. Yates has had a solid year except when the enire 'pen got the ERA flu during the White Sox series and Yates was in it. It's a problem the Pirates are going to have to face and Matt Capps is going to sorley miss having a good impact on the Pirates season. What a shame.

Hey good news! The Pirates finally have a leading pitching with an ERA under 4! Amazing! Zac Duke held a solid outing during game 2 where he went 5 innings and gave up 1 run. His ERA dropped to 3.88, putting him atop the Pirates pitching staff, who would of thought? Let's hope Duke's good charm rubs off on Tom Gorzelanny. God knows that kid needs it.
The Pirates offense showed no sign of being in a slump as they piled on 18 runs over the 3 games (one did go 11 innings) and some soft spots are starting to shine. Adam LaRoche went 7 for 11 with 6 RBI's. LaRoche went perfect Monday night when he went 3 for 3, then added 2 more hits the next night. LaRoche had a hand in all three runs scored Monday night. That rubber buggy, lag swing takes a while to warm up and that diesel engine of his has been stroking it. The offense got an extra surge during game 3 when Xavier Nady continues to have a solid season when he homered twice, pumping in 3 runs. Sigh, what do we do? We all Nady is a hot crop for the trade deadline and the Pirates are having a good season in terms of what we've had in the past 15 years. A legit chance of a winning record may hold the cards with Nady's soon to be departure and a depleted offense. Nate McClouth and Nady led the Pirates led the offense early on in the season. Since then Nady's been hurt (and helpful when in the line up), McClouth has fallen off, while Jason Bay and Ryan Doumit pumped in the run production. Well, Doumit got hurt and Jason Bay took over the reins. Now we revert back to the Xavier Nady days and hope every night that he shows up at the plate.

This series had a chance of getting the Pirates off to a nice hot start going into the All-Star break and it helped set them in the right direction. It was a good series, but nothing in the likes of a blazing start. After the series the Pirates had a serious shot of leaving the Queen City with a sweep and a good push towards getting back to .500. Which by the way, seems to be a number laced with STD's or something. Now, the Pirates head to Milwaukee to play a team that is over achieving and playing good baseball. 2 out of 3 there would be a nice stamp on that city for this time of year.