Last night and tonight

Since I didn’t write a full recap for last night’s game, I want to squeeze that in before today’s gameday post. Yesterday’s Charlie Morton looked a lot different than last year’s Bad Charlie. He struggled with his command early on (not at lot of walks, but some HBPs and he was clearly missing his spots), which is something he’s been prone to from time to time this year. He never got hit hard at any point, but some grounders found holes, there was some ugly defense behind him, and he was never able to get the rally-killing double plays or a big strikeout the way he’s been able to in his better starts this year. It was basically the worst case scenario that people saw after Morton’s first couple starts this year; if you can’t strike hitters out or place the ball exactly where you want it placed, eventually groundballs will find holes and you’re going to give up a ton of hits and runs instead of only allowing three hits and getting 15 groundouts, one flyout, and one strikeout in six innings. It’s going to happen; what’s worrisome is that Morton has had a few starts like this (the Braves and both starts against the Mets, namely) since teams started stacking the deck with a ton of lefties against him. He’s going to have to make another adjustment, or I think we’re going to see games like this a little more often. 

Onto tonight: RA Dickey starts for the Mets last night and his knuckleball made the Pirates look absolutely dumb for six innings last week. It particularly made Andrew McCutchen look awful, which is worrisome because he and Jose Tabata are the only two Pirates hitting right now. If McCutchen makes a run at another golden sombrero tonight, you can pretty much put the Pirates in the books for maybe one run and write your recap of this game up right now. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the reality right now and it’s not going to change until either 1.) Walker/Overbay/Harrison/Jones start hitting (maybe not all but at least some combination of them), 2.) Pedro Alvarez and Ryan Doumit get heathy and hit once they’re healthy (one is not a given even in the presence of the other), or 3.) the Pirates start getting creative to find time for guys that are killing the ball in Triple-A like Chase D’Arnaud and Alex Presley. 

James McDonald goes for the Pirates tonight and there’s plenty of pressure on him, too, as the club had a 12-inning game this week and Morton’s short start yesterday and a makeshift bullpen. He’s coming off of one of his worst starts of the year on Sunday against the Phillies when his control just up and left him in the middle of the game. Hopefully he’ll have himself pulled together to give the Bucs six or seven strong innings, because if he can’t we might be looking at another game like last night’s.