I think that perhaps the reason last night’s loss was so galling is that the Padres have looked absolutely awful in this three-game series. The Pirates have made their share of mistakes as well, but the Padres have just looked flat-out bad.
It was apparently right from the outset of this game that Clayton Richard was having some control problems today. When the Padres then made back-to-back errors in the third inning, it felt like one of those situations the team had to take advantage of. Struggling pitcher? More free base runners? Time to pile on the runs, right?
That sort of thing is never assured for the Pirates, but they made Richard and his fielders pay a steep price in the third today. Neil Walker hit a laser single to drive in two runs, then Steve Pearce drew a walk, then Ryan Doumit followed up with a right-handed grand slam. The Padres gave the Pirates some free base runners and the Bucs cashed in. Of course, they didn’t score again after Doumit’s grand slam (in fact, they seemed to kind of be hacking away at Richard after that) and the Bucs nearly let the Padres back in the game after Jose Veras gave up two homers and a walk in the ninth inning, but unless you’re the sort of person that believes the Pirates can’t do ANYTHING right, the outcome of this one was never in serious doubt.
It’s also worth noting that Kevin Correia turned in another solid road start today. He got a ton of groundouts today and threw strikes and pretty much did what he’s been doing all year. Obviously the five wins don’t necessarily mean a whole lot and his low strikeout rate is still a bit worrisome, but he’s keeping the ball in the park and not giving out free passes thus far this year, which were the two biggest sources of his problems with San Diego last year. It’s a long season, but it’d be an understatment to say that his strong start is a pleasant surprise.
With tonight’s win, the Pirates wrap up this westward trip with a 4-2 record. I said a week ago I was afraid their season was about to head south, but they’ve played well (despite the bone-headed mistakes in the first two games of this series) and they managed to take two out of three from a team that’s better than them and a team that might be worse. They’re still playing well on the road and they’re winning games even though they’re not getting huge contributions from some of the guys that many expected to carry the weight of the offensive load this year. Team record on May 4th doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it’s hard to be upset with how the Bucs have played so far in 2011. Let’s hope they can turn in their first really strong homestand of the year over the next eight days.
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