You know what I hate? When I take a whole bunch of time and effort to write a blog post defending a player, only to have them take the field and blow up. That’s what happened with Charlie Morton tonight, who shelved his home run problem for an evening but still got shelled for six hits and five earned runs (six total) in his 1+ inning tonight. I kept the game open on my laptop during the early part of the hockey game, and even paying half attention to it it was obvious that Morton just wasn’t fooling anyone tonight. Before his next start I guess I’ll try to get some PitchFX stuff ready to try and figure out just why he’s so hittable this year.
Morton was bad tonight, but the offense’s terrible performance shouldn’t be ignored. Dave Bush walked four and struck out just two in his seven innings, but the Bucs only managed three hits. Bush stranded more runners tonight than Morton has all season, I think.
If there is a bright side to a game like this tonight, Andrew McCutchen had three hits (two doubles) and Lastings Milledge finally showed a bit of gap power in driving him in with an eighth inning double. Also, Brian Burres mananged to eat up four innings in long relief, so the bullpen wasn’t as horribly depleted tonight as it could’ve been.
Let’s close things out tonight with a bit of a non sequiter: The Penguins scored seven goals in their playoff game tonight. The Pirates have topped that output just once this year, on Opening Day.
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