Even among those of us who have been calling the loudest for Brad Lincoln’s inclusion in the starting rotation, there’s been significant concern that Lincoln’s stuff simply doesn’t translate that well into the rotation; he’s really a two-pitch pitcher and maybe he’s just not suited to life as a starter. That’s definitely the vibe I’ve gotten from his last two starts. Tonight it seemed like the Orioles were pretty successful in waiting him out until he gave them a pitch to hit, then teeing off on it.
As a result, Lincoln didn’t make it out of the fifth and that brought Chris Resop into the game in the sixth and that resulted in the Orioles taking an 8-2 lead. That proved to be just too much for the Pirates to overcome, though they made a valiant effort at it with a two-run seventh and a two-run homer by Neil Walker in the ninth.
It hasn’t happened often that this Pirate team has pushed six runs across and had that not be enough, and so seeing it happen int his game almost seems a little wasteful. Really, though, this one seemed like a lost cause pretty early on and even though the Pirates rallied late, that never really changed.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
