To put it simply, the Reds embarrassed the Pirates in Pittsburgh the last two times the teams met. The Reds are certainly further along in their rebuilding road than the Pirates are, but not “ten hits in three games” further along. The Pirates did sweep the same Reds team back in April, after all.
Since their nightmare seven-game losing streak ended almost a month ago, the Pirates have gone 12-13 in the most manic way possible, putting together alternating 3-5 game stretches of competent baseball and maddeningly poor play. It’s certainly better than what we had before then and maybe even better than we had any right to expect before the season started, but that doesn’t make it maddening and vaguely unfulfilling to watch on a lot of nights.
The Pirates have again been an awful road team in 2010 (11-12 at home, 8-13 on the road). With seven games on the road in Cincinnati and Atlanta, this season could get away from them very quickly. First pitch tonight, with Brian Burres and Aaron Harang on the mound, is at 7:05. 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.
It should be no surprise that Ryan Doumit’s huge day earned him a whopping .635 WPA and the easy Clemente nod yesterday, while Zach Duke’s solid start made him the runner up. However, only two people had any faith in Duke and none in Doumit, so the duo didn’t result in many points. The Cangelosis were Evan Meek, for surrendering the game-tying bomb in the eighth, and Ronny Cedeno for failing to hit much of anything. Surprisingly, no one had Cedeno on their ballots, so only Mornacale and WallyR pick up points today.
The standings:
- Don_Madden: 23
- Woodward: 18
- brian2, dafletch: 16
- hisjazziness, North Shore Ryan: 15
- Wizard of Woz: 14
- hwtrine68, ndbrian: 13
- pdiddy0020: 12
- Garrett122: 11
- Carnegie Chip, whygavs, bwzimmerman: 9
- UtesFan89, pdiddy0020: 8
- apk, edgeman2k: 7
- Nate, TuckerD13, dboz, michaelbro8: 6
- J. Latrobe, TheHulk: 5
- appeal2smail, Mornacale: 4
- TomKaikis, Joek, tylerrcurtis, TheJewelryMan!, fruitbat: 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, Cecilio_Guante, Mr. Ando, WallyR: 1
- Everyone else: 0
- NSN, Mosca, danatural, Teflon, John Sparrow, matt w, Fielding Yost: -1
- PHook4000: -4
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