One of the main reasons the Pirates limped into the All-Star break on a six-game losing streak was because their bullpen blew two leads in what should’ve been a winnable series in Milwaukee. I think it would be hard to find a Pirate fan that likes losing to the Brewers, so serving up a nice heaping plate of revenge for those ugly losses would make for a nice start to the week for me.
The big question, of course, is if the Pirates can keep hitting after scoring 21 runs on 36 hits in the last two games against the Astros this weekend. I mentioned this a bit in today’s FanHouse Power Rankings (and off-handedly all over the place), but coming into the break, the Pirates were on pace for about 520 runs scored over the course of the season. That sounds ridiculously low and that’s even before knowing that no team since 2003 has scored less than 600. That two-game outburst, though, has pushed their pace up to the neighborhood of 546 runs. That’s still embarrassing, but it’s at least not mortifying. I’m all for getting the first pick in the draft, I think, but let’s at least do it in a way that won’t cause this team to be discussed in hushed tones for the rest of baseball history. Call me a dreamer, tell me I can’t have my cake and eat it, too, but dammit, it’s what I want to see.
Anyways, Andrew McCutchen is out of the lineup tonight (still “day-to-day” as per DK) and Jeff Karstens is on the mound to face Zombie Chris Capuano tonight with the first pitch coming at 7:05. Clemente/Cangelosi is, as always, 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.
Paul Maholm’s complete game shutout made him yesterday’s no-brainer Clemente, and Ryan Doumit’s three hits were a bit more timely than anyone else’s so he’s the runner up. Only three Pirates had negative WPA at all yesterday, which has to be the season low. Since one of them was Paul Maholm at the plate and pitcher’s batting scores don’t count, that put Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker alone on Cangelosi Island. ‘Cutch being there is why you see some negative scores while Maholm’s great start is responsible for Mornacale’s early rise to first place.
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