It’s been, by my math, nearly two years since the last time the Pirates swept a series that was at least three games long on the road. I have their last road sweep down as July 21-23, 2008 in Houston. That’s just what the Pirates have the chance to do this afternoon in Wrigley Field, though. Ross Ohlendorf is the pitcher with the chance to do it in his second game back from his DL stint. Neither his first start of the season nor his return start were anything to write home about. So far in nine innings, he’s walked seven and struck out just four with a 10:15 GB:FB ratio. None of those things are among the list of things I wanted to see Ohlendorf do this season so I shouldn’t even have to say that I think his 3.00 ERA is a bit of an illusion right now.
But, of course, there is the matter of the back injury and so all I’m really trying to say here is that Ohlendorf hasn’t pitched that well so far this year and if he keeps pitching the same way his ERA will swell, though he’s capable of better if healthy. Today would be a nice day to start along that track. He faces Ted Lilly, who’s off to a bit of a rough start and who the Pirates hit pretty solidly back on May 5th.
First pitch is 2:20 ET (I’m sure about it this time). Clemente/Cangelosi 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.
Yesterday brings us an interesting result — one we don’t see too often. Paul Maholm pitched pretty well and had a team best 0.185 WPA added on the mound, but his 0/2 at the plate docked him .045 and dropped him behind Andrew McCutchen and Joel Hanrahan (remember that scoreless innings in one-run games are huge WPA boosts). The Cangelosis, meanwhile, were Garrett Jones, who followed his huge day against a lefty with an 0/4 against Ryan Dempster and company, and Ryan Doumit, who also went 0/4.
In a bit of a WPA oddity (and the sort of thing that fascinates me to no end), Jeff Clement may have had the biggest hit in the game, but since the Pirates were already ahead when he hit it in the ninth, he actually ends up with a lower WPA than Octavio Dotel, who gets the same .094 that he would’ve gotten had put the Cubs down 1-2-3 (this is because the Pirates entered the ninth inning with an 89.6% chance of winning and even though that dropped below 60% with Fukudome’s triple, it still ends at 100% when they win no matter what the route there is). This is precisely why people caution against looking soley at numbers with no context.
To the standings, where, holy crap, someone has dethroned Woodward for the first time since about the first week of the season. Where Have You Gone, Woodward?
- Don_Madden: 20
- Woodward: 19
- dafletch: 17
- brian2: 16
- hisjazziness, Wizard of Woz: 15
- hwtrine68: 13
- North Shore Ryan, whygavs, bwzimmerman: 12
- ndbrian: 11
- Garrett122: 10
- Carnegie Chip: 9
- UtesFan89: 8
- apk, edgeman2k, pdiddy0020: 7
- Nate, TuckerD13, dboz: 6
- J. Latrobe: 5
- appeal2smail: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat, appeal2smail, michaelbro8, TheHulk: 3
- PatrickHealy, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, Adam_Reynolds, Mr. Ando: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate, Neopold, IndianaJohns04, wk kortas, jac8, CoryR: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, Mosca, danatural, Teflon, John Sparrow, WallyR: -1
- Mornacale: -2
- Cecilio_Guante: -3
- PHook4000: -5
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