With the Pirates in need of a strong start to help them break out of a post-All Star break mini-funk, Erik Bedard gave them 6 2/3 innings in thin air of Colorado tonight, which turned out to be plenty good for an offense that finally showed some real life after a strange set of post-ASB games. I’m not sure I’d say Bedard is “back” based on his work tonight (four strikeouts and four walks in 6 2/3, eight hits, he got bailed out by some double plays and some luck and by the Rockies swinging at a lot of pitches) but he was a little better than he’d been before the break and he made one of his longest starts of the year in one of the hardest places to pitch in the National League. That’s a start.
On the flip side of things, the Pirates looked pretty good at the plate against Christian Friedrich. Andrew McCutchen hit an absolute bomb of a home run (to left field this time!) to get the Pirates on the board and the Bucs used a four-run fifth to open up a lead for good. That rally was pretty run of the mill type stuff, but after a weekend of strikeouts and last night’s impotent performance against Jeff Francis, I’ll take a solid six run, nine hit, five walk game happily.
The Pirates have 50 wins in their first 90 games for the first time since 1992, when they got their 50th win in their 89th game.
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