Game 19: No Mercy Rule

fangraphs

W: Yovani Gallardo (2-2)
L: Zach Duke (2-2)

PIT HR: None
MIL HR: Alcides Escobar (1), Casey McGehee (5)

At a certain point, you have to start feeling bad for Pirates fans.  We have, after all, been there as Brewers fans… we were even there over the weekend when the Cubs were completely outplaying the Brewers.  That feeling of entering a game knowing you have no chance and just praying things don’t get out of hand is never fun, and you know that’s how Pirates fans felt heading into last night’s game.

The Brewers jumped out to a 7-0 lead after the first 3 innings before the Pirates scored 2 runs in the 4th on a double by Andrew McCutchen.  As Tom Haudricourt was quick to point out, McCutchen’s double accounted for more runs than the Pirates scored in the last series against the Brewers.

Things got out of hand in the 8th inning as the Brewers roughed up Octavio Dotel and Brendan Donnelly.  Gregg Zaun drove in two more runs on an RBI double, upping his RBI total for the night to 5 (!).  Alcides Escobar followed with a two-run homer (!!).  Casey McGehee capped off the inning by clearing the bases with a grand slam, and with a 17-2 lead, Ken Macha felt the lead was safe enough to use Jeff Suppan.  Suppan still managed to give up a run, which doesn’t create much hope for his future bullpen outings.

It’s definitely fun to watch the offense put together a game like this after they could never get anything going against the Cubs, but like I said, I feel bad for Pittsburgh’s fans.  They’re too good to deserve this, and to make matters worse, they had hopes of slowly starting to move up the NL Central standings this year.  While bats like Pedro Alvarez aren’t far away, it’s pretty clear that they need pitching.

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