The big story tonight is that Neil Walker is not only back up with the Pirates, but in the starting line up at third base (Andy LaRoche is still out with his balky back) and batting second behind Aki Iwamura, who gets a stay of execution at least for now. If Walker slips back to 2008/2009 form with the Pirates, that could be the lowest 1-2 OBP punch in baseball history. The actual game itself sees Paul Maholm, who’s turned in back-to-back good starts, try to stem the Pirates’ recent cold streak against Mike Leake, the rookie who’s been so good for the Reds this season.
Part of me wants to say that Leake is due for a bad outing (he’s 4-0 with a 2.91 ERA though his FIP and xFIP are both around a run higher, which is still very good for a rookie, of course, but not nearly as good as his real number), but another part of me says that the Pirates aren’t really capable of being the team that induces said bad outings.
First pitch is at 7:10 tonight, 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.
When Brian Burres starts and gets shelled, there are a lot of people that get two points. When Ronny Cedeno hits a two-run homer that was the Pirates’ best offensive play, a lot of people lose a point. In fact, almost everyone had Cedeno or Burres as their Cangelosi yesterday (with a few stray Akis, of course), so there was a lot of +2 and -1 movement. The runners up in both categories (Delwyn Young for Clemente, Garrett Jones for Cangelosi) didn’t create nearly as much action.
Today’s standings:
- Don_Madden: 25
- Woodward: 18
- brian2, dafletch: 16
- hisjazziness, North Shore Ryan: 15
- Wizard of Woz: 14
- hwtrine68, ndbrian: 13
- pdiddy0020: 12
-
Carnegie Chip, whygavs,Garrett122: 11
- bwzimmerman: 9
- UtesFan890: 8
- apk, edgeman2k
, pdiddy002, J.Latrobe: 7
- Nate, TuckerD13, dboz, Mornacale: 6
- TheHulk
, michaelbro8: 5
- appeal2smail: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat,
Cecilio_Guante, WallyR: 3
- PatrickHealy, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, Adam_Reynolds, Mr. Ando: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate, Neopold, IndianaJohns04, wk kortas, jac8, Mr. Ando, WallyR: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, Mosca, danatural, Teflon, John Sparrow, matt w, Fielding Yost: -1
- PHook4000: -5
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