It’s hard to not get excited about a nice win on Opening Day. The winter is long even when it doesn’t follow a 105-loss season and there’s nothing quite like following up the winter’s long baseball fast with a nice, resounding victory. But no matter how well things go on Opening Day, it can’t be any thing more than Game 1 of 162.
Instead of making too much or too little about one game, let’s just walk about what went right today at Wrigley. It was apparent in the fifth inning that Ryan Dempster was running out of gas. When Ronny Cedeno somehow laid off of two close two-strike pitches to draw a walk and put runners on first and second with one out, it was one of those situations where I said to myself, “Dempster’s running out of gas; we need to capitalize.” Of course, the Pirates then immediately burned an out with Kevin Correia’s sac bunt, but that still left runners on second and third for the top of the order. “The offense is supposed to be good this year,” I said to myself, “This is the sort of thing we should capitalize on.” Dempster kept struggling with the strike zone and Jose Tabata drew a walk. “We really need to score here,” I said under my breath while I put off some work for just a little bit longer.
And then Neil Walker launched himself into Pirate history with a grand slam. Since Walker is from Western PA and just a few months younger than me, I often put myself in his shoes. I can’t even process what being the first Pirate since Roberto Clemente to hit a grand slam on Opening Day must feel like. But that’s not really the point that we should all take from that inning. Really, Dempster was struggling with the strike zone and the Pirates waited out some walks and then they were able to get the hit to make him pay. And when Mike Quade left him in for an inning too long, the heart of the order made him pay again when Walker doubled and Andrew McCutchen homered.
Whether the Pirates end 2011 with what anyone except hopeful Pirate fans would call a good or even decent offense remains to be seen, but what the Pirates did today was take advantage when Dempster left the door open for them. They’ll have to do it more than once before we can say much that’s conclusive, but it’s nice to see them do it on the road to start the season.
I’d also be remiss without mentioning Kevin Correia’s start today. He wasn’t great, but I think that the way he pitched today must’ve been exactly what Neal Huntingotn had in mind when he signed him; he changed speeds pretty well, he kept the ball on the ground for the most part, and even though he gave up some hard hit balls he managed to minimize damage. If not for Pedro Alvarez’s error and Neil Walker’s stumble on a double play ball, he could’ve had a shutout going into the seventh. It’s just one start on a pitcher-friendly day in Wrigley, but it was all the Pirates’ needed today.
And in the unsung hero category, it’s only fair that I mention Ryan Doumit, who I’m pretty hard on pretty much all of the time. His leadoff single catalyzed Walker’s grand slam in the fifth, and he also threw out the first and only base stealer that tested him today (the hilariously named Darwin Barney) and he made a couple of nice blocks on balls in the dirt.
The Pirates are 1-0. Have you built your wall yet?
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