The Pirates unlikely little three-game winning streak faces it’s most serious test yet (which says something since Jeff Karstens and Brian Burres have both made starts) when Charlie Morton takes the hill for the Bucs tonight in LA. I still maintain that Morton’s stuff strikes me as fine, which means that he should theoretically be able to break out of this terrible slump. I’m not counting on that happening tonight, mind you, just saying that it’s possible.
Tonight he faces Chad Billingsley, who’s had his own share of struggles in 2010. Of course, struggle is a relative term. Billingsley’s ERA is 5.40 and he’s had his share of bad luck. Morton’s struggles are like three times as bad. Can he break out of his slump? Can the Pirates continue winning games they probably shouldn’t be winning? Can the Pirates score between the second and ninth innings?
Answers to these pressing questions (maybe!) and more, TONIGHT AT 10:10. And you wanted to watch hockey. (I’m kidding. Enjoy the hockey game, if you like hockey. It’s what I’ll be doing.) Clemente/Cangelosi is after the jump.
Not sure what this is? Check here and here. Short version: in the comments pick the Pirates you think will be most and least valuable in today’s game. If you haven’t jumped aboard yet, it’s been a lot of fun so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
Most of our competitors dodged a huge bullet last night when Jack Taschner came in and threw his 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief, because prior to his work Brian Burres was in line for the Clemente nod and would’ve cost a lot of competitors points. Taschner’s work was slightly more relevant according to WPA, though because he entered with runners on base and absolutely shut down the Dodgers. Burres was the Clemente runner-up for his solid start. Talk about an unlikely duo. The Cangelosi for the evening was Andrew McCutchen, who followed up his huge Wednesday with an 0-for-4. That cost quite a few people points. Chalk it up to jet lag. Runner-up there was Jeff Clement, who surprisingly only made apk’s list and leveled out his McCutchen pick.
Standings:
- Woodward: 20
- dafletch: 14
- hisjazziness: 12
- hwtrine68: 11
- brian2: 8
- Wizard of Woz, UtesFan89, North Shore Ryan, whygavs: 7
- apk: 6
- Carnegie Chip: 5
- dboz, appeal2smail, Garrett122, edgeman2k: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat, IndianaJohns04 , jac8 , bwzimmerman, Don_Madden: 3
- PatrickHealy, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, TuckerD13, Adam_Reynolds, Mr. Ando: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, CoryR, Mosca, wk kortas, danatural, J Latrobe, Teflon, Nate, Cecilio_Guante: -1
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