It’s amazing how quickly things devolve into a four-game losing streak that now helps an eight-loss in ten-game skid. I saw bits and pieces of last night’s game at the bar I was in last night in suburban Detroit (in between scowls from my friends of my friends and, “Oh, so you’re the guy from Pittsburgh. [Unprintable Sidney Crosby insult.]”) and started waving my arms frantically when I saw Brendan Donnelly come out for his second inning in a one-run game. Had I been somewhere with more Pirate fans (Rather than in a place where I was condescendingly told about 20 times that, “I feel sorry for you. There’s no one in the entire Pirates organization that’s trying to win or do anything but make money and you’re just a sucker helping their bottom line.” As you can imagine, people trying to talk Pirates with me without knowing anything about the Pirates does not sit well with me.) I would’ve been yelling, “NO DONNELLY IN HIGH LEVERAGE SITUATIONS! NO DONNELL IN HIGH LEVERAGE SITUATIONS!!!” Instead, I ordered another beer and shook my head sadly to myself when Donnelly gave up two more runs to seal the loss.
Today, the Pirates send Paul Maholm out to stem the bleeding at four games against Kenshin Kawakami. 20-30 is not a good place to be and it’s awfully close to slipping away into oblivion. Not that I really had higher expectations than that, but it’s always depressing to know that you may have passed the event horizon before June even starts.
First pitch today is at 1:35, brief Clemente/Cangelosi update 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.
As I mentioned, I’m out of town this entire weekend, so I won’t be doing a scoreboard update until probably Tuesday. Keep making picks, though, and I’ll make sure they get published and tally things up on Monday night or Tuesday.
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