It’s tempting to say that you could replace the following text with just about any recap from a Pirate loss this year, but that would actually be kind to last night’s loss. It’s true that the Pirates threatened against Joe Saunders early and seemed like they were finally going to break through on offense before falling silent for eight innings, but it’s not like Saunders is Clayton Kershaw or Roy Halladay. Saunders generally has a strikeout rate on par with the Zach Dukes of the world; he struck out five Pirates in seven innings last night.
Also unlike other losses was the fact that the pitching was not very good last night, either. Erik Bedard threw harder than he did in either of his first two starts, but he also walked four hitters in five innings and was constantly behind in the count. Still, it was 2-1 when he left the game and that might’ve been close enough for the offense to do something, but Evan Meek came in and promptly served up a two-run homer to Chris Young in the sixth, then Chris Resop gave up a leadoff, pinch hit homer to Gerardo Parra in the seventh. So not only was the offense miserable last night, but the pitching was well below par, too.
I’d say that this team is hard to watch, but that’d be quite an understatement right now. As it stands, I’m much more excited about Indianapolis’s trip to Durham next weekend and West Virginia’s trip to Greensboro the weekend after that than I am about anything that has to do with the Pirates right now.
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