You think you have it bad?

 

Welcome to the life of a Pirate fan. Always losing. Always gloomy. The Bucco’s have been a loosing team since I have been attending games. When I was 6, my parents started taking me to ball games. 1992. The heartbreak season. I remember everyone crying and not much talking for days. Since then, the loses have continued. Nothing seems to really shock me with this team. Well, almost nothing…

If you watched the game yesterday you know exactly what I am talking about. Bottom of the 8th, 2 outs. Suzuki pops it up into foul territory. Easy catch for JJ? Wrong. He misses it. (I actually felt really bad because you could tell how upset he was.) 2 pitches later? Suzuki with a solo HR to take a 3-2 lead. 9th inning. Pedro on 1st and tabata at the plate. The ball actually HITS Pedro on his run to 2nd. 3rd out. Pirates lose.

Has that actually ever ended a game before? I swear the Pirates are cursed. They just can’t catch a break.

It was a tough play, I should have had it,” Jaramillo said. “I missed it and that’s all.”  

Meek, meanwhile, placed the blame solely on his shoulders, not on those of Jaramillo.

“I just happened to miss my spot and threw it right to where he was looking to hit it,” Meek said. “He put a nice, smooth swing on it. Right when I threw it, I was like, ‘Oh, God.’ I mean, it’s frustrating, but what are you going to do?”

You can read more here 

Unfortunately, there were more disasters on the day. The Pirates commited 4 Errors. Yes, that’s correct. All the Athletic’s runs were all un earned. The pitching staff has commited 9 e’s this season, 4 belong to Ross Ohlendorf. The E’s on the day: Ohlendorf with an “attempt” to pick off, then GFJ’s throw to 3rd. Yes. That actually happened. The runner at 1st actually scored thanks to 2 errors. Cutch and JJ had the other 2 on the day.

 

Ross actually pitched a pretty good game.(If you minus the E) He went 6IP (no decision) 2H 2R 0ER 4BB 3K. In the 5th inning Ohly got out of a pretty big jam. The bases were loaded with 0 outs. He walked Crisp (which scored a run) then a P4, L6 and a F8. To get out of that with only 1 run scored was pretty great. A huge problem with the starts from Ohlendorf has been the run support. He is only averaging 2.3 runs in his last 10 starts.

Evan Meek in for the 7th and he pitched a perfect inning. The 8th was a great inning as well (minus the HR) Evan has only allowed 2 HR’s all season (the 2nd was Suzuki’s) Meek had 4 K’s in the innings.

• Milledge went 2-4 with a HR. He FINALLY got his first HR on the season. His last? All the way back to October 2nd, 2009. 254 PA’s later.
• Tabata 2-4 RBI BB (He is on a 5 GM hit streak)
• GFJ hit .396, 3 doubles, 2HR, 11RBI in interleague games this year.
• Gonzalez 6IP 4H 1ER 4BB 2K
• Cust 1-2 BB Run
• Suzuki 1-4 HR (10)

The Pirates drop to 17 straight losses on the Road. The A’s have won all 9 meeting all time agianst the Buccos.

If you think you can stomach it. Read this article on “The Pirates June swoon”

Pedro Alvarez had the day off yesterday. So far since he has been called up he has only 4H in 35 AB’s. 1 K in each of his last 10 games. Pedro is known for having a late start. I’m hoping he starts to hit come July. :-/

• JR quote after the game:

“We stunk. Were not a very good team right now. Too many stupid mistakes. We spoiled a very good start by our pitcher. We can’t play that way and expect to win.”

• JR on having a difficult month: 

“It hasn’t been a very kind month to us. Usually, when you face your worst adversity, that’s when you grow the most. I hope we’ve hit the bottom and are heading back up.”

Has anyone been voting for the All Star Game? Who do you think? Meek or McCutchen to represent the Pirates? They are both having All Star Years. Read more 

Minor League update:

Good news here!

• AAA Indy beat Toledo 15-3
• Alex Presley hit for the cycle (His 2nd cycle this year. His first was in AA Altoona) 5-6 HR 2RBI. Since joining AAA he is batting .538
• Brandon Moss went 2-6 HR 5RBI (Past week: .357AVG 4HR 14RBI .438OBP .786SLG)
• Steve Pearce 1-4 HR 3RBI
• Jeff Clement 2-4 HR 2RBI
• Tweet from @ScottDMcCauley  Iwamura bounces out to 1B. Reporters who follow him, he felt pressure of being Pirates highest paid player & is lacking confidence

Minor League Pitching Prospects (this season):

• Danny Moskos 2-1 1.44 ERA 31K 9BB
• Rudy Owens 6-3 2.80 ERA 63K 16BB
• Jared Hughes 10-3 3.83 ERA 31K 9BB
• Bryan Morris 7-2 2.05 ERA 76K 20BB
• Tim Alderson 6-4 4.87 ERA 48K 21BB

Chris Jacubauskas made a rehab start yesterday. Didn’t go so well. He went 4.1IP 7H 3R 3ER 2BB 3K

 

Today’s Pitching Matchup:

Paul Maholm                                   vs                 Randy Wells

4-6 4.24 ERA                                                      3-6 5.21 ERA

6-1 w/ 6.29 ERA against CHC                              2-1 4.05 ERA vs PIT

• Wells- Hasn’t won since April 30th. He has given up 20 ER in 61.1 IP (May & June)

The Pirates have pretty much “owned” the Cubs this year. Winning 7 of 9 (including 1 sweep)

 

 Okay. Maybe that was a little mean. I needed a laugh and I’m sure you do too.

 

Around the Ballpark

• Chipper Jones hit his 431st Homerun (Sat) tieing Cal Ripken for 38th all time. After he hit the HR, Chipper took the field alone. The teamates set him up. The fans gave him a standing O. “It was an awfuly nice gesture by the fans and I’m going to kill my teamates. It was really cool, something I’ll never forget.”
• Kawakami got his 1st win since Aug, 31 2009.
• Most Starts before 1st win of the season:

Elarton 16 in 2004, Sturtze 15 in 2002, Kawakami 14 in 2010 and Millwood 14 in 2010.

• Cubs played the 20,000th game (sat) the most in ML history.
• The White Sox had a 11 game wining streak. The longest since 1961 (12) 1951 (14) 1906 (19) The streak was snapped yesterday when the White Sox lost to the Cubs 8-6. Dempster went 7IP 9H 3ER 8K 122 Pitches. He has thrown 1,762 (the most in the NL)
• David Price (sat) went 8IP 11K (career high) 7H 2ER. He is the 1st AL Pitcher to get his 11th win this season. Price has been hot since June 2: 4-1 2.18 ERA 9.3 k/9IP 1.36 WHIP. The rest of the staff? Not so hot: 4-11 6.07 ERA 7.5 K/9IP 1.43 WHIP
• Team HR Leaders:

Blue Jays 115

Red Sox 103

Brewers 91

Dbacks 90

Reds 89

• Best ERA over 9GM Span (Since 2005):

Ubaldo Jimenez 0.53 2010

Clayton Kershaw 0.79 2009

Zack Greinke 0.82 2009

Josh Johnson 0.83 2010

Chris Carpenter 0.83 2005

• Last nights Yankee/Dodger game was pretty intense. Yankees won in the 10th 8-6. Cano with a 2 run Homer. Broxton in the Top of the 9th: Faced 9 batters, 4R 4H 2BB 48 Pitches

A Rod- 2-5 HR (11) 3R

Cano 2-5 HR (15) 3RBI

Belliard 1-4 HR(2)

Ethier 1-4 RBI

If somehow you missed it, the rest of the highlights are found here

• Jamie Moyer won his 267th win yesterday. He is now 36th all time. 1 win away from tying Jim Palmer (268) He also allowed his 506th HR, the most HR’s allowed in MLB History.
• The Mets have won 14 of their last 17 games at home. 28-12 overall.
• Jason Bay had his 1,000 hit and is now only the 10th Canadian to reach this milestone.
• Interleague 2010 ended: AL 133 W NL 118
• Jose Guillen extended his hittting streak to 21 games. The longest in Royal history since Rey Sanchez in 2001.