I can write a million times over that the Pirates can’t possibly be as bad as the seven games that immediately preceded last night’s exciting win indicated, but the only thing that actually makes it true is the Pirates going out and playing better baseball. They did that last night and it was a wonderful thing to see. Now comes the hard part; they have to do it again. They don’t have to win today, but they do have to go out and play another solid game to keep putting the ugliness behind them.
The good news is that Paul Maholm is this afternoon’s starter. He’s certainly capable of stringing some good innings together and that’s exactly what this team needs. He goes up against Chris Narveson, who recently replaced Jeff Suppan in the Brewers’ rotation. Somehow, 36 hours removed from Monday’s debacle the Pirates are nine innings away from a series win in Miller Park. That’s far from a given thing, of course, but at least it’s possible.
I won’t be able to see or listen to any of this one today, as I’ll be at a symposium all day. The first pitch is at 1:10 ET. 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 through so far and now’s as good a time as any to join in.
Unsurprisingly, last night’s WPA heroes were Ryan Doumit and Ronny Cedeno. After Prince Fielder’s homer and Brendan Donnelly cleaned up Javier Lopez’s mess, the Brewers chances of winning stood at 83.3%. After Cedeno’s leadoff homer in the top of the ninth, things flipped to 50/50. When Ryan Doumit stepped up five hitters later with the bases loaded and one out, the Pirates chances of winning stood at 72.4%. After his grand slam, they were up to 98.3%. That’s quite a swing. The Cangelosis were Javier Lopez, for serving up the dinger to Prince and putting two more runners on base, and Garrett Jones for his 0-for-4 evening.
Of course, the unlikely heroes mean that only one person (Traco Bucco) picked up points, while a few people lost out on Doumit’s dinger. Well, figuratively speaking. More literally, we all won. Here are today’s standings.
- Woodward: 21
- dafletch: 15
- hisjazziness: 12
- hwtrine68: 11
- whygavs, brian2: 8
- Wizard of Woz, UtesFan89, North Shore Ryan: 7
- Carnegie Chip: 5
- dboz, appeal2smail, Garrett122, edgeman2k, Don_Madden, bwzimmerman: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat, IndianaJohns04 , jac8: 3
- PatrickHealy, apk, MattB, SteelCity66, BadAndy, spazaru, TuckerD13, Adam_Reynolds: 2
- FSU Bucs, Christy, appeal2smail, SeanGentile, shsteimer, TheHulk, Traco Bucco, Tate: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, CoryR, Mosca, wk kortas, danatural, J Latrobe, Teflon, Nate, Cecilio_Guante: -1
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